This collection of twenty-four terrifying tales represents the most exceptional works of horror fiction to appear over the magazine's thirty-eight-year history.

Introduction (The Best Horror Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) • (1988) essay by Anne Devereaux Jordan
Window • (1980) shortstory by Bob Leman
Insects in Amber • (1978) novella by Tom Reamy
Free Dirt • (1955) shortstory by Charles Beaumont
Rising Waters • (1987) shortstory by Patricia Ferrara
The Night of the Tiger • (1978) shortstory by Stephen King
Poor Little Warrior! • (1958) shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
Nina • (1977) shortstory by Robert Bloch
Werewind • (1981) novelette by Michael Reaves [as by J. Michael Reaves ]
Dress of White Silk • (1951) shortstory by Richard Matheson
Gladys's Gregory • (1963) shortstory by John Anthony West
By the River, Fontainebleau • (1986) shortstory by Stephen Gallagher
Pride • [Oxrun] • (1982) shortstory by Charles L. Grant
Longtooth • (1970) novelette by Edgar Pangborn
Glory • (1986) shortstory by Ron Goulart
Bug House • (1980) shortstory by Lisa Tuttle
Hand in Glove • (1979) novelette by Robert Aickman
Stillborn • (1982) novelette by Mike Conner
Balgrummo's Hell • (1967) shortstory by Russell Kirk
The Old Darkness • (1983) shortstory by Pamela Sargent
The Night of White Bhairab • (1984) novelette by Lucius Shepard
Salvage Rites • (1987) shortstory by Ian Watson
Test • (1962) shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas
The Little Black Train •(1954) shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
The Autopsy • (1980) novella by Michael Shea