Customer Reviews

Great American Ghost Stories

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This book was headed for the discard pile even though I'm a ghost story junkie, but then I found a trio of really good stories buried within the dross of old pulp filler:

"Stillwater, 1896" by Michael Cassutt - A Great Lakes lumber town is visited by a man who can locate corpses underwater.

"One of the Dead" by William Wood - A vacant lot is purchased very cheaply in a canyon inhabited by movie stars, and haunted by its Spanish past.

"Night-Side" by Joyce Carol Oates - Two skeptics test a medium who can speak with the voices of the dead. The really chilling aspect of this story is its author's depiction of the afterlife.

There are also some decent stories that are worth a once-over:

"Drawer 14" by Talmage Powell - A morgue attendant sees a corpse in a drawer that's supposed to be empty. This story has a kicker at the end.

"Professor Kate" by Margaret St. Clair - A family of witches is hunted by a posse in Indian Country.

"School for the Unspeakable" by Manly Wade Wellman - You will soon guess what is going to happen to the new boy at the prep school, but it's still a spooky read. I'm prepared to bet money that the author originally set this story in England, but the editors changed the location to North Dakota to fit it into this collection.

"Clay-Shuttered Doors" by Helen R. Hull - A woman returns from the dead to host her husband's dinner party.

"Poor Little Saturday" by Madeleine L'Engle - An original fantasy, but more about witches than ghosts--I think. A woman in a deserted, boarded-up plantation house befriends a boy with malaria.

"Great American Ghost Stories" also features a so-so story by Harlan Ellison--"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"--I think he was feeling sorry for himself when he wrote it; and a really awful early Lovecraft: "Herbert West - Reanimator." When Lovecraft is bad, he is really, really bad and this story's got sentences like, "Not more unutterable could have been the chaos of hellish sound if the pit itself had opened to release the agony of the damned, for in one inconceivable cacophony was centered all the supernal terror and unnatural despair of animate nature."

Yes, indeed. Most of the stories in this book have never been anthologized, as far as I can determine, except for a duet by Ambrose Bierce: "The Boarded Window;" and "The Stranger." But the editors could hardly have called their book, "Great American Ghost Stories" without an entry from the man who defined 'happiness' as, "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."

Herein lies a fine collection of Ghost Stories. And it's not a barrage of cheesy tales of moans and groans in the attic. I devoured this book of shorts in one sitting. It kept my toes curled all night. Highly recommended! (Mary Higgins Clark's short story sets off the book in fine style, being the first in line) Loved it!!!

Herein lies a fine collection of Ghost Stories. And it's not a barrage of cheesy tales of moans and groans in the attic. I devoured this book of shorts in one sitting. Highly recommended! Mary Higgins Clark's short story sets off the book in fine style, being the first in line. The only tale I'd say was missing from an otherwise great collection is Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". Loved it!