Washington Irving (1783-1859) is best known for his headless horseman story: “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow." It is still widely read some 200 years after its publication. His second best ghost short story was the Adventure of the German Student. Both were published in my anthology of The Best Ghost Short Stories 1800-1849. https://www.andrewbarger.com/best-ghost-stories-1800-1849 Another ghost story by Irving is quite good: “Guests from Gibbet Island.” Gibbet is an antiquated

For lovers of ghost stories, let’s all tip our top hats to Charles Dickens, the author of “A Christmas Carol.” He was so fixated with ghost stories that he wrote nearly twenty of them among his short stories and novels. His “No. 1 Branch Line, The Signal Man” of 1866 rises to the level of the Top Ten stories found in Best Ghost Short Stories 1850-1899: A Phantasmal Ghost Anthology. As if his many ghost stories weren’t enough for the genre, Dickens fostered the literary career

It's not often that I post a review of one of my books in its entirety. In fact, I never do. Nicola Manning, however, published one of the most well thought out reviews of The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849 anthology that I edited. I agree with her on most points (Washington Irving excepted). You can follow all her reviews on GoodReads . They are worth your time. "Reason for Reading: I have a particular interest in the Gothic story and my favoured literature time period is the

The bleak midwinter is a time for ghosts like those found in the anthology: Best Ghost Short Stories 1850-1899: A Phantasmal Ghost Anthology . It contains the best ghost stories from the last half of the 19th century; shocking tales from popular American and Victorian authors. These are the finest ghost stories for the last half of the nineteenth century and they are combined in one haunting collection. The stories are annotated with background information, author photos and

Horror author and humorist Jerome K. Jerome said in his 1891 introduction to an anthology of Christmas ghost stories “Told After Supper," "Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories." In 1963 Edward Pola and George Wyle wrote the popular Christmas song, "It's the Most Wonderful time of the Year," which told of "Scary ghost stories," that are told at Christmastime. This Victorian tradition should

It's not often that I post a review of one of my books in its entirety. In fact, I never do. Nicola Manning, however, has recently published one of the most well thought out reviews of the best ghost stories anthology that I edited. I agree with her on most points (Washington Irving excepted). You can follow all her reviews on GoodReads . They are worth your time. "Reason for Reading: I have a particular interest in the Gothic story and my favoured literature time period is

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was no stranger to telling a scary ghost story. His "Legends of the Province House" was mentioned as being exemplary by H.P. Lovecraft and his 1835 story titled "Graves and Goblins" is quite good. But this post is about Lady Eleanor's Mantle , which floats in at the 16th spot in my countdown of the scary ghost stories for the first half of the nineteenth century. "Lady Eleanor's Mantle" is a ghostly tale of pestilence and because of that it dra