I am trying to track down a short story.  I read it first in the
mid-1960's, so it must have been written before then.  It is a ghost
story of around 20-30 pages, and it was in a paperback anthology of
ghost stories, which may have been one of "The -nth- Fontana Book of
Great Ghost Stories" series, though I'm not sure of that.  My memory
is that it was the first story in this particular anthology. The title
was "The House in the Wood" or "The House in the Woods" or "The
Cottage in the Wood" or something very similar to this. The gist of
the story is the following. The narrator has an acquaintance, who is a
habitually melancholy and rather shy individual.  One weekend, the
acquaintance invites the narrator to visit with him a house in the
wood which he has purchased (or rented?).  They go together - the
place is delightful, warm, welcoming, full of friends and happiness. 
The acquaintance keeps asking the narrator rather anxiously if he is
enjoying everything, to which the narrator replies that of course he
is - the house is wonderful and the whole weekend is wonderful.  At
the end of the time they return back to their day to day lives.
However, the acquaintance becomes more and more agitated and strange,
to the point where one morning he is found to be stark staring mad.
The upshot is that the house in the wood had been the acquaintance's
fantasy, but one so deeply felt that he had been able to project it
into a reality so vivid and concrete that another person had been able
to experience it, at least for a short while. So - somewhat of a
mixture between H G Wells "The Door in the Wall" and "Le Grand
Meaulnes" in theme.    Can you track this story for me, from these
rather broad details? It is NOT "The Cottage in the Wood", a short
story by a writer called Ex-Private X, despite the promising title.

Hello,

I believe the short story you recall is "The House in the Wood" by
John Hastings Turner. This story was published in Volume 10 of
Fontana's "Great Ghost Stories" Series.

Fontana's "Great Ghost Stories" Series
A Bibliography
Volume 10, 1974 
John Hastings Turner
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Horror/FontanasGhostStories.html



The Tenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (Paperback)
by R. Chetwynd-Hayes 

?Through the 1970s, Fontana published a remarkable skein of ghost
story collections, piloted by R. Aikman and later by R.
Chetwynd-Hayes, no mean supernatural authors themselves.?
 
?Each volume contains a mixture of 19th and 20th century authors--at
least those who published through the late 1970s. I believe this to be
the finest multi-volume set of ghost stories ever issued. The only
publications that can compete with Fontana are the 36 (and counting)
thrice-yearly issues of "All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story
Society."

One of the stories in the 10th Fontana Book: 

A House in the Wood" by John Hastings Turner

"A House in the Wood" by John Hastings Turner--Two friends go for a
walk in the woods and find a house, inhabited by a beautiful, young
woman and her parents. In the introduction, R. Chetwynd-Hayes says
that most people prefer three ingredients in a collection of ghost
stories: fear; pathos; and humor. I disagree with the latter two
ingredients, as they dilute the first. Unfortunately, "A House in the
Woods" is one of those stories that exudes pathos.?


Used copies of this book are available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0006136230/103-8989118-0440621?v=glance&n=283155


Search terms used: 
"The House in" " the Wood OR woods" ghost stories Fontana
"John Hastings Turner" Fontana

I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 01 Dec 2005 15:24 PST

The Tenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories is also available on eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Tenth-Fontana-Book-of-Great-Ghost-Stories_W0QQitemZ6949015398QQcategoryZ268QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Couldn't be better.  Many thanks!