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World's Most Terrifying "True" Ghost Stories
Presents thirty-three brief, purportedly true stories featuring ghosts and other supernatural phenomena.
96 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1995
12 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Myers
33 books5 followersArthur B. Myers, of Wellesley, freelance writer, journalist, investigative reporter, editor, college writing instructor, and in his later years, author of a number of books and articles about ghosts and other paranormal phenomena, died April 8, 2006. He was 88.
He was the author of 21 books and more than 150 articles and stories in magazines and other publications for both children and adults, including Saturday Review, Coronet, Ladies’ Home Journal, Sports Illustrated, Collier’s, Women’s Day, Cricket, Boys’ Life, and American Girl. Mr. Myers also wrote a number of articles and stories for remedial reading guides published by Random House, Houghton Mifflin, and Educational Development Laboratories.
“My favorite books are several I have written on the occult,” he was fond of saying, acknowledging his interest in the unknown. “They are serious investigations of hauntings, cases of possession and other such phenomena.” Those books were generally timed for publication around Halloween, and he enjoyed being interviewed by local and national personalities. His first of five books about ghostly goings-on, The Ghostly Register: Haunted Dwellings, Active Spirits – A Journey to America’s Strangest Landmarks, was published in 1986. It described incidents throughout the United States and Canada. Some chapters involved Massachusetts cases, such as the reported ghost of author Edith Wharton at her mansion in the Berkshire Hills, several incidents at the Colonial Inn in Concord, and reports of a ghost at the former John Stone’s Inn in Ashland who supposedly put five-dollar bills in the tip jar on the bar, and many others. Following its publication, Mr. Myers was invited to speak at the annual Boston Globe Book Fair. His topic was “Ghosts and the Extreme Likelihood of Their Existence.”
Once, after being interviewed on Larry King Live, Mr. Myers overheard the notoriously tough and skeptical host of the national television show say to someone backstage, “You know, I really believe this guy!” He wrote four other books on ghostly subjects, including Ghosts of the Rich and Famous (1988), which detailed supposed sightings of the ghosts of John Wayne and Natalie Wood among others; and The Ghostly Gazetteer: America’s Most Famous Haunted Landmarks (1990).
Mr. Myers was born October 24, 1917, in Buffalo, New York, the son of Edward A. and Isabelle (Baker) Myers. He graduated from the Buffalo public school system and from Hobart College in 1939 with a B.A. degree in English. He served in the U. S. Army for four years during World War II.
His first book, published in 1966 by Random House with law professor Jeffrey O’Connell, was entitled, Safety Last: An Indictment of the Auto Industry. When Mr. Myers’s investigations began to disturb people in the automobile industry, he sought counsel from then-editor at Random House, Bennett Cerf. He was reassured by Mr. Cerf: “If you’re sure you’re getting at the truth, then carry on, my boy, and don’t worry!”
During an adult life devoted to writing, Mr. Myers served as assistant city editor of the Washington Post, contributing editor of Coronet magazine, executive editor of the Berkshire Sampler, and in various editorial and reportorial posts at the Rochester Times-Union, the Berkshire Eagle and the Bergen (NJ) Record.
His last published book was Communicating with Animals: the Spiritual Connection between People and Animals (1997), which explored the ability of humans to “speak” telepathically with animals, and vice versa. Mr. Myers said then, “As time went by, I had the urge to expand my work into wider and deeper aspects of the human spirit. I have written many books, newspaper articles and stories on unusual subjects. I’ve written articles on spiritual groups such as the Sufis, dowsers, etc. I felt that I was meant to write books that open up human awareness of the afterlife, the before-life, and in-between spiritual life.
“I suspect that the world is moving toward a greater awareness of
He was the author of 21 books and more than 150 articles and stories in magazines and other publications for both children and adults, including Saturday Review, Coronet, Ladies’ Home Journal, Sports Illustrated, Collier’s, Women’s Day, Cricket, Boys’ Life, and American Girl. Mr. Myers also wrote a number of articles and stories for remedial reading guides published by Random House, Houghton Mifflin, and Educational Development Laboratories.
“My favorite books are several I have written on the occult,” he was fond of saying, acknowledging his interest in the unknown. “They are serious investigations of hauntings, cases of possession and other such phenomena.” Those books were generally timed for publication around Halloween, and he enjoyed being interviewed by local and national personalities. His first of five books about ghostly goings-on, The Ghostly Register: Haunted Dwellings, Active Spirits – A Journey to America’s Strangest Landmarks, was published in 1986. It described incidents throughout the United States and Canada. Some chapters involved Massachusetts cases, such as the reported ghost of author Edith Wharton at her mansion in the Berkshire Hills, several incidents at the Colonial Inn in Concord, and reports of a ghost at the former John Stone’s Inn in Ashland who supposedly put five-dollar bills in the tip jar on the bar, and many others. Following its publication, Mr. Myers was invited to speak at the annual Boston Globe Book Fair. His topic was “Ghosts and the Extreme Likelihood of Their Existence.”
Once, after being interviewed on Larry King Live, Mr. Myers overheard the notoriously tough and skeptical host of the national television show say to someone backstage, “You know, I really believe this guy!” He wrote four other books on ghostly subjects, including Ghosts of the Rich and Famous (1988), which detailed supposed sightings of the ghosts of John Wayne and Natalie Wood among others; and The Ghostly Gazetteer: America’s Most Famous Haunted Landmarks (1990).
Mr. Myers was born October 24, 1917, in Buffalo, New York, the son of Edward A. and Isabelle (Baker) Myers. He graduated from the Buffalo public school system and from Hobart College in 1939 with a B.A. degree in English. He served in the U. S. Army for four years during World War II.
His first book, published in 1966 by Random House with law professor Jeffrey O’Connell, was entitled, Safety Last: An Indictment of the Auto Industry. When Mr. Myers’s investigations began to disturb people in the automobile industry, he sought counsel from then-editor at Random House, Bennett Cerf. He was reassured by Mr. Cerf: “If you’re sure you’re getting at the truth, then carry on, my boy, and don’t worry!”
During an adult life devoted to writing, Mr. Myers served as assistant city editor of the Washington Post, contributing editor of Coronet magazine, executive editor of the Berkshire Sampler, and in various editorial and reportorial posts at the Rochester Times-Union, the Berkshire Eagle and the Bergen (NJ) Record.
His last published book was Communicating with Animals: the Spiritual Connection between People and Animals (1997), which explored the ability of humans to “speak” telepathically with animals, and vice versa. Mr. Myers said then, “As time went by, I had the urge to expand my work into wider and deeper aspects of the human spirit. I have written many books, newspaper articles and stories on unusual subjects. I’ve written articles on spiritual groups such as the Sufis, dowsers, etc. I felt that I was meant to write books that open up human awareness of the afterlife, the before-life, and in-between spiritual life.
“I suspect that the world is moving toward a greater awareness of
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 30, 2025
I am actually familiar with quite a number of the reputed as supposedly true stories of hauntings, of diverse spirit encounters which author Arthur Myers presents in his 1995 World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories (from Sterling Publishing, which seems to have a number of “true” ghost stories collections). And yes, it is precisely because I am sufficiently familiar already with a goodly number of the thirty odd featured tales that I also know without a doubt that Myers has sadly and obviously left out much relevant and necessary information regarding time, place and biographical and cultural, historical details in his anthology.
Now while I have noticed this annoying and frustrating author induced over-abridgement most strongly and most heavily in two particular stories of World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories, namely in the account regarding 19th century Ontario politician William Lyon Mackenzie and how he is supposed to haunt his former Toronto home and in the tale about Hungarian born author Arthur Koestler, with both texts feeling totally inadequate and so shortened by author Arthur Myers that there is not only nothing even remotely interesting remaining but that the ghostly aspects of the presented tales feel totally unbelievable and in fact rather tacked on, well, ALL of the stories Arthur Myers recounts are actually and in my opinion very seriously lacking in presented details and spookiness. And therefore, instead of the presented ghost stories feeling even remotely terrifying (as the book title of World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories insinuates and suggests), I have in fact not only NOT been AT ALL frightened by these tales but also mostly rather majorly and woefully bored (and with me also often not even being willing to believe in the supposed reality and veracity of the collected ghost stories, as Arthur Myers has both not bothered with acknowledging his sources and has also and equally kept World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories so historically vague and lacking in any kind of specific details that I just cannot suspend my belief and suspicion that the vast majority of the included ghost accounts are likely not even true, are just some figments of people’s collective imaginations).
Now while I have noticed this annoying and frustrating author induced over-abridgement most strongly and most heavily in two particular stories of World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories, namely in the account regarding 19th century Ontario politician William Lyon Mackenzie and how he is supposed to haunt his former Toronto home and in the tale about Hungarian born author Arthur Koestler, with both texts feeling totally inadequate and so shortened by author Arthur Myers that there is not only nothing even remotely interesting remaining but that the ghostly aspects of the presented tales feel totally unbelievable and in fact rather tacked on, well, ALL of the stories Arthur Myers recounts are actually and in my opinion very seriously lacking in presented details and spookiness. And therefore, instead of the presented ghost stories feeling even remotely terrifying (as the book title of World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories insinuates and suggests), I have in fact not only NOT been AT ALL frightened by these tales but also mostly rather majorly and woefully bored (and with me also often not even being willing to believe in the supposed reality and veracity of the collected ghost stories, as Arthur Myers has both not bothered with acknowledging his sources and has also and equally kept World’s Most Terrifying “True” Ghost Stories so historically vague and lacking in any kind of specific details that I just cannot suspend my belief and suspicion that the vast majority of the included ghost accounts are likely not even true, are just some figments of people’s collective imaginations).
April 19, 2011
This book actually had quite a few ghost stories in it that I never heard of. The only one in here I knew of was the story of Robert The Haunted Doll, but it wasn't the full story, much was left out of it.
The book was okay, the stories were very short and I think that there might of been a lot of details left out of the stories. That was the case for Robert The Haunted Doll story in the book. But the book was okay. The stories were interesting, most of them I never even heard of before and I liked that, but a little more detail would have been nice. I think this book was written for younger readers, as it's very easy to read and the ghost stories are shorten quite a bit.
Not a bad book. I think anyone into the paranormal would enjoy it.
The book was okay, the stories were very short and I think that there might of been a lot of details left out of the stories. That was the case for Robert The Haunted Doll story in the book. But the book was okay. The stories were interesting, most of them I never even heard of before and I liked that, but a little more detail would have been nice. I think this book was written for younger readers, as it's very easy to read and the ghost stories are shorten quite a bit.
Not a bad book. I think anyone into the paranormal would enjoy it.
October 27, 2021
I enjoyed these ghost stories. The last one was my favorite but none were boring.
April 19, 2021
Part of a series of books of "true" ghost stories written for children (by several different authors) in the 1990's. I enjoyed this one, although it was not my favorite. This entry contains similar illustrations as the rest of the series; they're somewhat sketchy, but I remember thinking they were pretty creepy when I was a kid.
Myers's book contains a mixture of famous and lesser known ghost stories. I was, for instance, familiar with the story of Robert, the Doll and the replaying of a battle from the English Civil War. However, stories like, "A Call from Uncle Andy" and "Silent Witness" were really interesting and completely unfamiliar to me.
Warning: One story contains dog death. I skipped that one, since I have a hard time dealing with animal death, both real and fictional.
Myers's book contains a mixture of famous and lesser known ghost stories. I was, for instance, familiar with the story of Robert, the Doll and the replaying of a battle from the English Civil War. However, stories like, "A Call from Uncle Andy" and "Silent Witness" were really interesting and completely unfamiliar to me.
Warning: One story contains dog death. I skipped that one, since I have a hard time dealing with animal death, both real and fictional.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews