Spencer Holst, a writer of fables and a fixture of the downtown Manhattan avant-garde scene for 30 years, died on Nov. 23 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. He was 75.

He had been suffering from emphysema and apparently died of a stroke, said George Quasha, a co-owner of Station Hill/Barrytown, Mr. Holst's publisher.

Mr. Holst gained his reputation partly from his own readings of his stories. He was a big-eyed man and read the magical tales with an air of constant wonderment, as if they had been dropped on his doorstep just that morning. They were short and often funny stories in which animals mixed with people.

The poet Hugh Seidman, Mr. Holst's neighbor for 30 years in Westbeth, the housing complex for artists in the West Village, said, ''Once you heard him perform his classic tales, like 'The Frog' or 'A Balkan Entertainment,' it was impossible to get his voice out of your head, impossible not to hear it each time you read one of his fables.''