The fourth volume of a project to collect, in order of original publication, the short fiction of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson. Volume Four includes twelve stories from 1936 to 1938, and a foreword by SF & Horror author and scholar Edward Bryant. An appendix includes a novelty feature and an unreprinted story preface. The author provides an afterword commenting on the genesis of these stories, and reflecting on the economic and cultural mood of the nation during the early years of American Science Fiction.

Contents include:

"The Ruler of Fate" (from Weird Tales)

"Death's Cold Daughter" (from Thrilling Mystery)

"The Great Illusion" (from Fantasy Magazine)

"The Blue Spot" (from Astounding Stories)

"The Ice Entity" (from Thrilling Wonder Stories)

"Spider Island" (from Thrilling Mystery)

"The Mark of the Monster" (from Weird Tales)

"The Devil in Steel" (from Thrilling Mystery)

"Released Entropy" (from Astounding Stories)

"Dreadful Sleep" (from Weird Tales)

"The Infinite Enemy" (from Thrilling Wonder Stories)

"The Legion of Time" (from Astounding Science-Fiction)

As with the previous volumes in THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JACK WILLIAMSON, SPIDER ISLAND is a smythe-sewn 6" x 9" hardcover bound in a custom-dyed cloth, and typeset in a format designed in honor of the Fantasy Press editions of Williamson's first books from the 1940s & 50s. Full-color endpapers reproduce the pulp magazine cover art for each story's first appearance.