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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 12, 2018 14:00:04 GMT
Hippocampus Press has published a new collection of stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, a late 19th century/early 20th century U.S. writer with a fine knack for down-to-earth ghost stories. My own view is that some of her highfalutin contemporaries, such as Henry James and Edith Wharton, could've taken notes on her simple, low-key style. August Derleth was evidently a big fan, and her vein seems to suit him better than Lovecraft's.
Lost Ghosts: The Complete Weird Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, edited by S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press, 2018).
Introduction, by S. T. Joshi A Symphony in Lavender A Far-Away Melody A Gentle Ghost The Twelfth Guest The Little Maid at the Door Silence The White Witch The School-Teacher’s Story The Prism The Wind in the Rose-Bush The Vacant Lot Luella Miller The Shadows on the Wall The Hall Bedroom The Southwest Chamber The Lost Ghost The Witch’s Daughter The Jade Bracelet Giles Corey, Yeoman
Stories in red appear in her original collection of ghost stories, The Wind in the Rose-Bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural (Doubleday, Page, and Company, 1903) and Arkham House's 1974 Collected Ghost Stories. Stories in blue appear in the latter but not the former. Among the stories in the Arkham House collection (all of which I've read at some point or another, and all of which I like), I'm particularly fond of "The Wind in the Rose-Bush."
Of the others, I've only run across "Silence" (in Yankee Witches, edited by Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, Frank D. McSherry, Jr.). I'm looking forward to reading the rest--except for maybe "Giles Corey, Yeoman," which is a play based on the Salem witch trials.
Joshi's introduction is thoughtful and informative. This collection is part of a series by Hippocampus, Classics of Gothic Horror (other featured authors include Thomas Burke, Robert W. Chambers, W. W. Jacobs, E. Nisbet, Mary Shelley, Theophile Gautier, and Irvin S. Cobb/Gouverneur Morris, with the last as a double bill). Seems like a worthy project.
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