The Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (May 1868-Apr. 1927) was born in Paris, France to a respected and moderately well-to-do family. He turned to writing and became a theatre critic and, later, a highly-respected international newspaper correspondent. In 1907 Leroux suddenly and without explanation quit journalism and began writing fiction, prolifically penning thirty-seven novels and a number of short stories. Leroux's most famous individual work, The Phantom of the Opera, was serialized in 1909 through 1910, and would go on to become one of the most recognized titles in the genre of horror writing. Nancy Holder is the coauthor with Chistopher Golden of the original Watcher's Guide and several Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels, as well as numerous Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Salem's Tails books. LESLIE S. KLINGER is the two-time Edgar(R) winning editor of New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. He has also edited two anthologies of classic mysteries and, with Laurie R. King, five anthologies of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Klinger is the series editor of Library of Congress Crime Classics, a partnership of the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. He is a former Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and lives in Malibu, California.