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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2019 10:31:50 GMT
Anon [ed.] - Twenty-Five Ghost Stories (Avon, 1943: originally W. Bob Holland [ed.], Twenty-Five Ghost Stories, 1904) Anon [W. Bob Holland] - Preface
Edgar Allan Poe - The Black Cat Guy de Maupassant - The Flayed Hand Eleanor F. Lewis - The Vengeance of a Tree A Lady - The Parlor-Car Ghost Arnold M. Anderson - Ghost of Buckstown Inn A Constabulary Officer - The Burglar's Ghost Anon - A Phantom Toe Frederick F. Schrader - Mrs. Davenport's Ghost Anon - The Phantom Woman 'Ascribed to Guy de Maupassant ' - The Phantom Hag Guy de Maupassant - From the Tomb A Witness - Sandy's Ghost S. T. - The Ghosts of Red Creek Anon - The Spectre Bride: A short story from the Lake Regions Anon - How He Caught the Ghost C.D. - Grand-Dame's Ghost Story Q. E. D. - A Fight with a Ghost S. Baring-Gould - Colonel Halifax's Ghost Story A Spinster - The Ghost of the Count A Sportsman - The Old Mansion Anon - A Misfit Ghost Anon ['From a Letter'] - An Unbidden Guest Anon - The Dead Woman's Photograph A Traveller - The Ghost of a Live Man Anon - The Ghost of Washington No blurb. According to E. F. Bleiler, W. Bob Holland "probably assembled this collection from Victorian periodicals and Christmas annuals. Most of the material [described] is insignificant." A Lady - The Parlor-Car Ghost: "I swore ... that I would sell a case of blue denims on that trip if it took me forever." Had J. Billington Price only realised he was about to fall under the wheels of a train, he'd not have sworn such a rash oath, but it is too late now. Seven months on, Price is doomed to spend eternity aboard the Flying Yankee unless he can persuade some kind soul to purchase his wares. Sara Pyne, too charitable for her own good, obliges, sets free his soul, winds up with enough denim to clothe a Status Quo audience (ask your ancestors). Anon - A Phantom Toe: Is the ominous toe in the hotel bedroom real or the product of a sauerkraut-induced hallucination? A death-struggle ensues. Escaped lunatic fun. Anon - The Spectre Bride: A short story from the Lake Regions: Turns out this is Elia W. Peattie's melancholy tale of the phantom skater, On the Northern Ice. Likewise, the 'Anonymous' The Dead Woman's Photograph is her The Story of an Obstinate Corpse. A Sportsman - The Old Mansion: Captain Jim narrates the story of an evil wreckmaster who deliberately caused a the sinking of the Powhatan to help business along, causing the deaths of four-hundred passengers in the process. As the corpses washed ashore, he robbed them. His now derelict mansion is haunted by the ghosts of a drowned woman and her infant child. Notable in that the villain benefits from his crime, investing the ill-gotten cash in slaves for his new plantation.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 26, 2019 14:39:44 GMT
What a delightful old volume. You're showing great cleverness in tracking down the actual names of some of those authors. You must have had a lot of practice doing that with some of the late Peter Haining's "discoveries," judging from other threads.
"Insignificant" perhaps if one lived in Bleiler's home with 10,000 ghost and horror volumes wall to wall, but for those of us in less superbly furnished digs... a gem.
I know I've read about the author Q.E.D. and I vaguely recall his stuff being good... but the details have gone with the wind.
cheers, H.
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Post by Swampirella on Nov 26, 2019 16:22:36 GMT
FYI It's available both at the Int*rn*t Arch*ve & at Project Gutenberg; this is one I'll pass on (for now!) Great cover art, though!
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2019 19:51:18 GMT
What a delightful old volume. You're showing great cleverness in tracking down the actual names of some of those authors. You must have had a lot of practice doing that with some of the late Peter Haining's "discoveries," judging from other threads. "Insignificant" perhaps if one lived in Bleiler's home with 10,000 ghost and horror volumes wall to wall, but for those of us in less superbly furnished digs... a gem. I know I've read about the author Q.E.D. and I vaguely recall his stuff being good... but the details have gone with the wind. cheers, H. It's E. F. Bleiler did all the detective work - the only one I'd have recognised, if any, is The Spectre Bride/ On the Northern Ice and that because I read it under the latter title quite recently. EFB also mentioned that R.C. Bull ran a version of The Parlor-Car Ghost with the action relocated to England. In his essential The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Bleiler is dismissive of much commercial fiction, including the Not At Night, Creeps and Pan Book of Horror series.' On the evidence of The Phantom Toe and The Haunted Mansion, I'm inclined to agree with him re 25 Great Ghost Stories, though early days yet.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 26, 2019 20:19:43 GMT
Thanks for the note about Bleiler. I should look at that in the library sometime. Copies are available for sale on a popular online retail site--the cheap ones are priced at US$235.00 Egads. I guess the book went OP in the 1980s.
I found this synopsis of a favorite tale by EFB a bit peculiar:
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"--"Parkins, a scholar on holiday, while poking around old Templar ruins at the seaside, finds an ancient metal whistle. On an impulse he blows it, and the winds rise. He also seems to see a vision of a man chased by something white and horrible across the beaches. Back at his hotel he has the distressing experience of encountering what his whistle had evoked: a malevolent cloth being."
Seems somehow to miss the point? But if you're indexing thousands of works of horror/ghost lit presumably nuances and reflection simply aren't possible. I suppose if published today the volume would have a huge sticker affixed to the cover reading SPOILER ALERT.
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2019 20:59:12 GMT
Thanks for the note about Bleiler. I should look at that in the library sometime. Copies are available for sale on a popular online retail site--the cheap ones are priced at US$235.00 Egads. I guess the book went OP in the 1980s. Been unusually lucky with his stuff. I ordered a copy of Guide to Supernatural Fiction through W.H. Smiths at some point during the 'nineties - cost me £20 new! Fair to say I've had my money's worth over the years. Nabbed another of his paving slab editions, Science Fiction Writers by various authors, from Sclater Street market last May for £1! Guide ... is less spoiler-ish than this forum. He correctly assumes the reader will have at least some familiarity with the subject matter, otherwise they'd not have sought out such a specialist volume. Many of my personal favourite entries are those I completely disagree with. Some of his commentaries on the Satanic works of Dennis Wheatley are hilarious (and spot on, IMO).
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Post by helrunar on Nov 26, 2019 21:15:22 GMT
OK, now I have to see if I can get the Bleiler "paving slab" tome out of the library to peruse his bead-reading of Wheatley. An author who often induces eyerolling at Schloss Helrunar.
Those are incredible deals you cite on those volumes! The gods smile favorably upon you indeed!
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2019 22:04:59 GMT
Those are incredible deals you cite on those volumes! The gods smile favorably upon you indeed! Doesn't happen very often but that's OK. Just makes you appreciate it more when you get a result.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 27, 2019 7:42:39 GMT
Russell '41 Eleanor F. Lewis - The Vengeance of a Tree: Farm labourer Walter Stedman is falsely accused of the murder of his forbidden lover, Margaret Kelsey, and lynched by the locals who despise him for a stuck up City boy. Years later, the real killer returns to the scene of the crime. Stedman's ghost still haunts the white oak from which he swung. Now, at last, an opportunity for revenge! "Insignificant" is being generous to this pair. Anon ['From a Letter'] - An Unbidden Guest: Married life gets off to a traumatic start for Kate and Tom Howard with the realisation that their honeymoon cottage is haunted. But whoever heard of a ghost with a fetish for salt and pepper pots? Rationalised (or perhaps that should be rat-ionalised). Anon - A Misfit Ghost: Lieutenant King relates his experience aboard The Eagre (née The Mohawk), a 'cursed' ship first launched in June 1875. Has that dreaded "authentic ghost story" feel to it and author is no Elliott O'Donnell.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 27, 2019 18:30:16 GMT
Anon - The Dead Woman's Photograph: Happy go lucky lensman Virgil Hoyt despises commissions which require his photographing the recently deceased, but he needs to eat. Fortunately, this latest client, a dead Jewess, is equally reluctant to be captured on film.
Anon - The Phantom Hag: A party of friends visit the Black Rocks, an ancient Druid site in central France. A phantom hag, unseen by all but the narrator, boards their carriage on the journey home and bestows a kiss upon Madame Albert. She does not survive the night. Have no idea who first attributed this one to Guy de Maupassant, but it doesn't read much like his work.
Arnold M. Anderson - Ghost of Buckstown Inn: The former landlord of the Arkansas hostelry was a notorious skinflint rumoured to have stashed his gold in the neighbouring forest. A rather spectacular ghost with a long bony arm is insistent narrator Roger Green go look for it. Green soon has reason to suspect Jane Watson, the current landlady, knows more about the 'haunting' than she cares to admit. After all, ghosts are often good for business.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 29, 2019 13:11:05 GMT
Grand-dame's Ghost Story: "Whence I come, you need not know; suffice it to say, that were I happy I would not be here on such an errand, nor on such a night—it is only when the elements are in a tumult, and the winds wail and moan, that we come forth. When you hear these sounds it is souls of the lost you hear mourning their doom—’tis then they wander up and down, to and fro, their only release from their fearful home of torture and undying pain."The ghost of Nancy Black shares her dark secret with old school friend Jeanette, entrusts her to arrange decent burial for of the skeletons of her victims concealed under the floorboards. S. Baring-Gould - Colonel Halifax's Ghost Story: ( English Illustrated Magazine, Dec 1897). Lord of the manor disturbs a notorious poacher as he's laying traps. In ensuing scuffle, the latter is killed. His Lordship and accomplice quietly conceal the corpse behind a boulder in the chalk pit and forget about it. Some years later, the grandson discovers the skeleton. He secures the bones in a trunk intent on forwarding them to a museum for analysis. In the meantime, they gather cobwebs in an attic room. The ghost, denied Christian burial, walks the night. The British Fantasy Society published a stand-alone chapbook of Colonel Halifax's Ghost Story with an introduction by Hugh Lamb, which, I dare say, is far more interesting than the story. Anyone have a copy? Guy de Maupassant - From The Tomb: A grave-robber rudely disturbs Juliette from her cataleptic trance in spectacularly bloody fashion. Denouement made me laugh so much, I couldn't resist sharing.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 29, 2019 17:25:25 GMT
Guy de Maupassant - From The Tomb: A grave-robber rudely disturbs Juliette from her cataleptic trance in spectacularly bloody fashion. Denouement made me laugh so much, I couldn't resist sharing. Yeah, it's a good one, aka "The Spasm", and based on a traditional folk story with multiple variations found throughout Europe: www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0990.htmlHere's another version from Northern Ireland, complete with actual gravestone - www.cultofweird.com/death/margorie-mccall-buried-twice/The second comment posted under the article lists some of the other variations, some of which share the same much crueller ending as the NI one.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 1, 2019 7:25:54 GMT
Yeah, it's a good one, aka "The Spasm", and based on a traditional folk story with multiple variations found throughout Europe: www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0990.htmlHere's another version from Northern Ireland, complete with actual gravestone - www.cultofweird.com/death/margorie-mccall-buried-twice/The second comment posted under the article lists some of the other variations, some of which share the same much crueller ending as the NI one. Thanks, Dr. Strange. Knew I'd read it somewhere. Splendid article - and replies - on the Cult of Weird site, too. Anon - How He Caught a Ghost: Another dire one. David is a sceptic, so when his family lease a haunted house, he's keen to expose who or what is masquerading as a chain-rattling ghost. This is more like it. Frederick F. Schrader - Mrs. Davenport's Ghost: “There is to be a seance this evening at the residence of Mrs. Harding,” began the medium. “Quite a number of influential people will be there, and two or three millionaires. Conceal under your skirt the blonde woman’s wig and the white material in which the spirits usually make their appearance.” Such are the instructions of Professor Benjamin Davenport, mighty prince of souls, to his assistant Miss Ida Soutchotte prior to entertaining a party of credulous trendies. Tonight Davenport has decided to "materialise" his late wife, Arabella, so that she may conveniently scotch damaging rumours concerning his behaviour towards her. S. T. - The Ghosts of Red Creek: Insanely jealous of his wife, Gibbet slit her throat followed by those of their four children before blowing his brains out. Given those circumstances, how could the farmhouse not be haunted? Narrated in dialect by Old Jack, who claims to have seen the ghosts.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 2, 2019 17:08:37 GMT
Artist uncredited. Illustration appears at base of The Phantom Woman but seems more appropriate to Mrs. Davenport's Ghost Guy de Maupassant - The Flayed Hand: Pierre considers it a wizard wheeze to use the severed hand of a murderer as a novelty bell-pull. The late owner violently disagrees. Anon - The Phantom Woman: Gilbert Dent, lawyer, falls for the woman sat nightly at the window in the house on Wood Lane. When several evenings pass without he putting in an appearance, he breaks in fearing some misfortune has befallen her. He is right - her body is sprawled lifeless before a table! Gilbert informs the police, but by the time they arrive, the corpse has vanished. Easy to tell Gilbert that it would be better not to pursue the mystery, but the poor fellow is besotted. A Traveller - The Ghost of a Live Man: The disembodied spirit of a sailor adrift in a lifeboat among the corpses of his mates, nightly visits the cabin of a whaler off the Cape of Good Hope. Eventually the crew effect his rescue. A Witness - Sandy's Ghost: Old Kit keeps his promise to a long dead fellow gold prospector. This book is infested with do-gooders.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 3, 2019 12:24:24 GMT
Anonymous - The Ghost of Washington: Cycling through Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on Christmas Day, John Reilly chances upon an empty farmhouse. Helping himself to a drink from a discarded flagon, he is thrown back 120 years to the War of Independence and presented to George Washington as a spy. The General finds John's bicycle fascinating - can this strange contraption outpace a horse? An impromptu contest is soon under way. E. F. Bleiler praises this one as ahead of its time. A Constabulary Officer - The Burglar's Ghost: Parker, a policemen at Westford, owes his promotion to the ghost of reformed villain, Barksea Bill, who turns snitch to betray former confederate 'Light-Toed Jim' - or so he thinks. Five years after the arrest, Parker meets the supposed phantom in a railway carriage. Seems to me this story was doing OK until author needlessly rationalised it. A Spinster - The Ghost of the Count: The Mexican villain, killed in a duel over a woman with a famous Austrian Prince, reveals whereabouts of his secret treasure hoard to dligent bookkeeper Miss James, who, unless she wishes otherwise, is unlikely to remain 'A Spinster' for long. Q. E. D. - A Fight with a Ghost: Narrator spends New year with George Carson at his family retreat in Woodcote. Much seemingly supernatural activity - a horrible face in the dark, attack by bony arm - culminating in an assault on the host's fiancée, Miss Stoner. Others may disagree, but I reckon this one actually benefits from explaining away it's "ghost" in dramatic fashion ... {Spoiler}.... as an escaped lunatic in the loft!
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