The Graveyard Rats
Written by Henry Kuttner
www.ink2quill.com

“The Grave Yard Rats” is a horror, short story written by American scifi writer Henry Kuttner and published in 1936. Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1915 to immigrant parents from Leszno, Prussia. In spite of a short life he had a big impact on the horror, scifi genres associating with with greats like H.P. Lovecraft who thought very highly of him. He also collaborated with his wife Catherine Lucille Moore on most of his best work, including “The Grave Yard Rats” which was his first published story and is what launched his career. He has also influenced some of the great authors like Marion Zimmer Bradley, Roger Zelazny and Richard Matheson, who dedicated his masterpiece “I Am Legend” to him.

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The Graveyard Rats Goodreads webpage

“The Graveyard Rats” is the story of a misfortunate cemetery caretaker and grave robber who must deal with a serious rat problem that is cutting into his illegal business. The man’s name is Old Masson and I have to say that he has a lecherous quality about him. The way he describes the fact that gold teeth are left in the mouths of corpses as well as corpses being buried with their valuables, and knowing that he rifles through dead bodies for profit is reprehensible. At one point in the story he crawls through a giant hole in the ground and through a tunnel to follow a corpse that is being dragged away. As he finds out too late the tunnel he crawls down is not wide enough for him to turn around in and when giant rats start to attack him the ending we all knew was coming arrives.

John Ink2Quill

Ink2Quill Blogs / Short Story, Novellas & Poems / Written 1936 / 2026 / bradley / horror / ink2quill / john / kuttner / lovecraft / matheson / moore / November / quill / scifi / zelazny /