This collection of ghost stories was begun during a short-term college class on interviewing techniques, taught by the authors, both now professors emeriti of Georgetown University in Kentucky. Students turned in stories in various forms—some as verbatim transcripts, some as paraphrased texts, and others in a literary style with dialogue as in a short story. Student contributors are acknowledged by name at the beginning of the book, but individual texts are identified only by the informant’s sex, age, and county of residence. Although not all stories in this book were collected according to standards of professional folklorists, the stories are nonetheless interesting and informative.
Folklorist William Lynwood Montell graciously wrote a foreword to the book, commenting that it is important that such stories “be preserved for future generations, who may gather significant historical and personal information from them” (viii).
The stories are organized into the following categories by chapter: 1. Unfinished Business; 2. Disappearing Ghosts; 3. Mysterious Events and Haunted Places; 4. Presences Sensed by Light, Cold, or Sound; 5. Poltergeists; 6. Communication with the Dead; 7. Ghosts That Weren’t Ghosts; 8. Ghosts at Educational Institutions; 9. Death Omens and Superstitions; 10. A Collection of Ghost Stories (from one person who wrote them down while in junior high school); and 11. A Ghost Story from the Nineteenth Century (“an account of strange occurrences that beset the Horrell family”).
The authors’ comments are mostly whimsical, not linked to the most relevant scholarly research, and seemingly designed to straddle belief systems of both believers and skeptics. For example, the authors wrote about a premonition that prevented the Lexington Church from burning down: “The premonition at the end of the story may have been a coincidence, but it could also have been an example of a spirit nudging someone to take action in order to prevent a disaster” (27). Their conclusion states: “Skepticism is healthy, but one has to be careful to also keep an open mind and not let initial beliefs block evidence that might be presented at a later date” (182).
People who know Kentucky will love the local detail: “The house is on Aiken Road in Woodford County between Midway and Versailles” (91). Bell witch stories, ghostly dogs, campus ghosts, rattling chains—all are here, with titles like “The Gray Lady of Liberty Hall” and “Family Banshee Foretells Deaths.” In sum, this is a fine anthology with extremely interesting and readable ghost stories, worth reading for the charm of the stories themselves.
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[Review length: 410 words • Review posted on February 9, 2011]