Carpenter & Kolmar - Ghost Stories by British & USA women

[dem bones]

Lynette Carpenter & Wendy Kolmar - Ghost Stories by British & American Women: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1998)

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Explanatory Notes

Annotated Bibliography

Key to Collection Abbreviations
Index to Themes and Motifs


Ten years in the making. No back cover blurb, but opening paragraph of acknowledgements tells us we have come to the right book.

"We are first and foremost indebted to the extensively scholarly and bibliographical work of Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Richard Dalby and E. F. Bleiler. Salmonson for her Violet Books catalogues, her anthologies, and her generous sharing of information in correspondence and conversation: Dalby for his many carefully researched and annotated collections; and E. F. Bleiler for his collections and his groundbreaking The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. We are also grateful to the many other contemporary anthologists whose work has made ghost stories accessible to a wider audience."

The biblio consists of brief synopses of numerous novels - some familiar, as many largely forgotten - and stories culled from anthologies, single author collections and a diverse range of periodicals and pulps including Coloured American, The Flag of Our Union, Good Housekeeping, Weird Tales, various Belgravia annuals, and London Mystery Selection.

It's brilliant!

[dem bones]

As expected, this wonderful biblio soon enthused a hunting down of stories previously unknown to me. Example, this morbid gem;

Buisson, Ada. "A Story Told in Church," Belgravia annual 7 (1868): 55-64

At a girl's school Christmas party, three girls — two of whom are cousins and rivals for a young man's attentions — run through a graveyard and haunted church on a dare. One of the cousins never returns. The other cousin, who it appears locked her in an old vault under the church floor where she died, is haunted by her dead rival's screaming and scratching at the stone. The story is told years later by a governess, the third participant in the race.

Lynette Carpenter & Wendy Kolmar, Ghost Stories by British & American Women: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1998)

If that sounds to your taste, here's a pdf.

Attachments:

Ada Buisson - Story Told in Church.pdf (194.41 KB)

[dem bones]

We suppose it is right that the "annual" should be of kin with the "monthly," but, although the contents of Belgravia are of thrilling interest we must be allowed to enter our protest against "sensation" tales for Christmas time, on the ground of their "inappropriateness" — pardon the length of the word, Oh courteous readers. Miss Braddon herself furnishes a well told tale, "Found in the Muniment Chest"; "King Esar's Slave" is rather more silly than sublime; the author of "Mildred's Wedding" has surely let his fancy run wild. "Cora," by Alfred Thompson, is more than a "Psychobiological Mystery," it is sheer inconsistency, if we do not say worse. "A story told in a Church," by Ada Buisson, is too severe a character to please us; murder among school girls — away with such rubbish. "Abbey House," by J. H. Ware is not only a well told story but of considerable interest to the student of of "crypto-graphs," or writing by symbols. "The Death's Head Club," by Walter Thornbury, is simply horrible, as is also "A Madman's Story," by T. H. S. Escott, only eclipsed in horror by Georgina C. Clark's "Life Watch." But the "Annual" does not accumulate "horror on horrors' head" without furnishing us some lighter materials, as a "make-weight." Thus we have "Nicodemus," funnily illustrated and funnily told by Alfred Crowquill; "The Serious Ball" by G. A. Sala; "The Legend of La Hunaudaye" by Charles Smith Cheltnam;" "Dorothy's Rival," by Babington White; "An Acting Charade," by Alfred Thompson, and a short, well told tale by our old townsman William Sawyer, which is sufficiently short to warrant its importation intact into our columns, and sufficiently amusing to amply please our readers.

Brighton Gazette, 12 Dec 1867.

"THE BELGRAVIA ANNUAL.— London: Warwick House of Paternoster Row.— Miss Braddon has issued her "Belgravia Annual," which is quite equal to her other publications, and consists of more than twenty Christmas tales and poems, as well as several minor illustrations, which are executed in good style. "Found in the Muniment Chest," a tale by the author of "Lady Audley's Secret," is charmingly told, and is a suitable story for the approaching season. "The Curious Ball" is very laughable. "Cora, a Psychobiological Mystery." by Alfred Thompson, is one of the most curious stories we have read for some time. "A Story told in a Church," by Ada Buisson, is very exciting, yet very dreadful. There are numerous other equally interesting as those mentioned, and we must congratulate the authoress on the success of her Christmas magazine.


Yorkshire Gazette, 30 Nov. 1867.