About the time when Houdini and Conan Doyle feuded over spiritualism, a crusading journalist named Vera Van Slyke attended and defrauded a séance led by one Lida Prasilova. This rough meeting blossomed into a lifelong friendship centered upon the exploration and explanation of when ghosts are not real, but also when they are! Vera and Lida's many adventures are documented here, in this wonderful collection of stories that will bring about as many smiles as hairs standing upon the back of one's neck. Join Vera and Lida as they prowl lonely mansions, bustling theatres, and underground train tunnels to unravel the mysteries of the spirit world and provide HELP FOR THE HAUNTED.

Help For The Haunted

Literature & Fiction

Prasil, Tim

Genre Fiction

Emby Press, LLC

Review\n"It's a neat book. . . . [Prasil] has gone through decades of ghost stories--and decades of old newspaper stories about ghosts and haunted places--and it's fascinating. It's fascinating to see what made it in the papers." - Troy Taylor, American Hauntings Podcast\nBetween the American Civil War and the nation’s entry into World War I, a wave of ghost reports appeared in U.S. newspapers. Haunted houses, haunted roads, haunted families, and other spectral manifestations were treated as legitimate news. Tim Prasil has collected hundreds of these articles, and Spectral Edition: Ghost Reports from U.S. Newspapers, 1865-1917 displays the scariest, strangest, funniest, and most intriguing of them. Along with nearly 150 complete ghost reports, Prasil includes a well-researched Introduction, useful footnotes, rare newspaper illustrations, and an essay about how an alleged ghost encounter in Memphis ignited a debate about responsible journalism. Spectral Edition explores a curious chapter of U.S. newspapers and an era when the American press challenged scientific and religious skepticism with open-minded consideration of the possibility that specters return to haunt us!

Spectral Edition: Ghost Reports from U.S. Newspapers, 1865-1917

History

Americas

Brom Bones Books

On a hot summer day, a man in a heavy coat sold Tim Prasil a timeworn manuscript of 100 limericks purported to have been penned by Edgar Allan Poe. Prasil has never been able to prove or disprove the true authorship. Is it possible that the often-melancholy Poe dabbled in writing limericks? Decide for yourself as you page through these mostly silly--occasionally spooky and serious--glimpses of Poe's work, his life, and his world.Here are a few samples:~ Misquothed ~Ascribe the mistake to the Devil orHow sound can rebound on unlevel floor.That talkative birdwas simply misheard.The raven was pagin' a "Neville Moore."~ The Pall o’er the Pulse of Usher ~Poor Roderick did as he should!Interring his sister was good.Tho’ that couldn’t crush her,Sad Madeline Usher,Inherited properties could.~ Tender Torture ~Once money arrives, I will send you some,Despite my repute as a friend to rum.I borrow to pay.In sorrow, I sayThat debt is a pit and a pendulum.

The Lost Limericks of Edgar Allan Poe

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Help for the Haunted: A Decade of Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries

United States

For centuries, ghost stories were part of an oral tradition, often involving a storyteller reciting the spooky tale before a fire on a chilly winter night. During the 1800s, as magazine production and literacy became more widespread, reading ghost stories rose in popularity. However, many authors attempted to preserve on paper the experience of listening to an account of the supernatural. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary E. Wilkins, E. Nesbit, Ambrose Bierce, Edith Wharton, M.R. James, and many others put their creative stamps on this distinctive tradition. Echoing Ghost Stories: Literary Reflections of Oral Tradition showcases such tales, establishing their fascinating place within the wider genre of the Victorian ghost story.

Echoing Ghost Stories: Literary Reflections of Oral Tradition

BIERCE, AMBROSE

NESBIT, E.

JAMES, M.R.

Wilkins-Freeman, Mary E.

WHARTON,EDITH

STOWE., HARRIET BEECHER

In 1899, a séance was held at the Morley Mansion in Boston, Massachusetts. The millionaire Roderick Morley was desperate to contact his murdered friend. He hoped to clear himself of suspicion by identifying the true killer. The séance went horribly wrong, though, and Morley left the room—to commit suicide.By 1903, the Morley Mansion was deemed haunted! The new owner hired Vera Van Slyke, an odd but brilliant ghost hunter. With her assistant, Lucille Parsell, Vera quickly realized that, to banish the ghost, the two would have to solve the murder.But a fugitive murderer wasn’t the only shadow cast over the Morley Mansion. A fake medium had performed at that séance, a shame-ridden woman who called herself: “Lucille Parsell.”And, sometimes, guilt is a ghost that can never be banished.

Guilt Is a Ghost: A Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mystery (Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries)

Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Agents Mulder and Scully, and Carl Kolchak . . . Before Jules de Grandin, John Silence, and Carnacki the Ghost Finder . . . The roots of occult detective fiction reach as far back as ancient Rome, where two master plots emerged. The first involves a character whose courage and intelligence solves the mystery of a troubled spirit: a ghostly client. In the second, a character must investigate and vanquish a much more wicked supernatural foe: a demonic culprit. Showcasing E.T.A. Hoffmann, Charlotte Riddell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Machen, and other authors, Ghostly Clients &amp; Demonic Culprits charts the history of both plots, from antiquity to fully formed occult detectives in the early 1900s.

Ghostly Clients and Demonic Culprits: The Roots of Occult Detective Fiction

Hoffmann, E.T.A.

MACHEN, ARTHUR

Riddell, Charlotte

Conan, Doyle Arthur

Kipling., Rudyard

TAYLOR, Bayard

Untraceable whispering voices.Gnome-like spirits who walk through walls.A room that glows with an eerie, life-draining light.Disembodied footsteps that climb stairs but never descend.A house with doors that open by themselves-even when locked.After a period of strong skepticism among writers and intellects regarding the reality of ghosts, the Victorian era (1837-1901) revitalized interest in seriously exploring houses and other locations alleged to be haunted. The paranormal investigators, including Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, chronicled their methods and discoveries. Equipped with little more than candles, patience, and perhaps a flask of brandy, these men and women laid a foundation for the ghost hunters of today.The Victorian Ghost Hunter's Casebook presents some of the most intriguing, most frightening, and most charming of the chronicles left behind. Ghostlore scholar Tim Prasil provides an Introduction about what motivated the Victorians to investigate spectral manifestations, along with the history of ghost hunters that preceded them. He also provides enlightening details on twelve ghostly cases located in Britain, and an Appendix with two more ghost hunts held in the United States during the Victorian era.

The Victorian Ghost Hunter's Casebook

Crowe, Catherine

Goodrich-Freer, Ada

DICKENS., CHARLES

Europe

Paranormal investigators of the Victorian era (1837-1901) certainly refined and advanced ghost hunting. But they didn’t invent it. Night-long stakeouts, investigation teams, struggles with skeptics — even the term “ghost hunter” — all appeared before the Victorians. 
In Certain Nocturnal Disturbances, historian Tim Prasil narrates and analyzes famous and forgotten cases from the deep roots of ghost hunting. He shares insights into spectral manifestations of centuries ago while making surprising connections to paranormal investigation today.

Certain Nocturnal Disturbances: Ghost Hunting Before the Victorians

From Eerie Cases to Early Graves: 5 Short-Lived Occult Detective Series

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON

O'Brien, Fitz-James

Eustace, Robert

Meade, L.T.

Upward, Allen

Thiselton-Dyer, T. F.

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