By Nathaniel Hawthorne The great-great-grandson of the only judge in Salem’s witch trials who never publicly regretted his role, Nathaniel Hawthorne spent much of his life dealing with his family’s past through his writing. Whilst The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables get all the notoriety, perhaps none of his works deal as […]
The Tractate Middoth
The Salem Athenaeum in Salem Massachusetts has a ghost story of it’s own. The tales of M.R. James (1 August 1862 -12 June 1936) are rightfully considered classics of the genre. In the Tractate Middoth, we have a mysterious visitor in the library, setting off a chain of events which turns a curious librarian into […]
Poe in Charleston and the Legend of Annabel Lee
Sullivan’s Island, Charleston, South Carolina. “I asked myself- “Of all melancholy topics what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?” Death, was the obvious reply. “And when,” I said, “is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?” From what I have already explained at some length the answer here also is […]
Tales From Head of the Harbor & St. James Part II: What Lies Beneath Mary’s Grave
“You’re certainly in a cantankerous mood today,” Miss Bronwen noticed as she looked out the window of the passing scenery. “And look at you, speeding along at almost sixty miles per hour. But that’s right, you’re in your element now.” I hmmmmphed indignantly and concentrated on the road for a bit. The road was Route […]
Tales From Head of the Harbor and St. James I: New Thoughts on Mary Hatchet and Mary’s Grave
Top: Mary’s Playhouse at Head of the Harbor. Mary lived with her father in a large rambling house on Stony Brook harbor, in what is today known as Head of the Harbor, New York. One can assume that Mary’s father was anticipating a large family, or perhaps more likely, he inherited the house. But either […]
The Shadow in the Corner
A creepy tale from the pen of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, one of the most popular writers of sensational fiction of Victorian England, from the Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.
