Witches,Wraiths & Warlocks

by Ronald Curran (Editor, Introduction), Cotton Mather (Contributor), Charles Montgomery Skinner (Contributor)

America's preoccupation with the supernatural has deeper roots than the current vogue for the macabre might suggest. The classic tales selected for this definitive collection clearly show the formative influence of the myths and legends of England and Germany. Each tale is repre­sentative of its native source, whether it is the literary traditions of New England and the South, or the serio-comic folklore of the Frontier, the Negro, or the American Indian.


CONTENTS

Introduction

Folk Tales


Cotton Mather - Enchantments Encounter'd
William Root Bliss - Old Deb And Other Old Colony Witches
M. V. Ingram - General Andrew Jackson: The Great Soldier and Statesman's Visit to The Bell Witch
Richard M. Dorson - The Cat-Witch
Frederick Gottschalck - The Witch Dance On The Brocken
Charles M. Skinner - The Leeds Devil
Virginia Frazer Boyle - Stolen Fire
Richard M. Dorson - Seeing The Devil In Three Shapes
Samuel Adams Drake - Jonathan Moulton And The Devil
Thomas Chandler Haliburton - Barney Oxman And The Devil
Charles M. Skinner - The Death Waltz
Richard Chase - The Haunted House
Anon - The Ghost
Charles M. Skinner - The Long Sleep
Launcelot - The Legend Of The Pipe
Anon - Coffined Alive

Popular Literature


Anon - The Castle Of Costanzo
Anon - The Parricide Punished
anon - The Wig And The Black Cat
Miss Elizabeth P. Hall - The Witch
E. E. - The Veil
Mrs Volney E. Howard - The Midnight Voyage Of The Seagull
Anon - The Sphinx
Anon - Tale Of A Conjurer
Anon - The Enchanter Faustus And Queen Elizabeth
Anon - The Dream
Anon - The Captive's Dream
John Waters - The Wooden Legged Ghost
I. P. A. - A Ghost Story
Rudolph - The Village Doctor

The Literary Tradition


Nathaniel Hawthorne - Young Goodman Brown
Washington Irving - The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Edgar Allan Poe - The Black Cat
Mark Twain - A Ghost Story
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini's Daughter
Herman Melville - The Tartarus Of Maids
Edgar Allan Poe - Ligeia
Washington Irving - Rip Van Winkle
Edgar Allan Poe - The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Herman Melville - The Bell-Tower

Bibliography

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies

354 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1971

Reviews

[Kent Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but most of the actual stories are too centered on the romantic aspect. The best one is The Midnight Journey of the Seagull because it was one of the only ones to really embrace a sinister atmosphere without sounding like a bad imitation of Shakespeare. And one thought on Herman Melville, author of the most wildly overrated classic novel in history, and his two short stories in this. His knowledge of obscure adjectives was a source of great pride. It's easy to tell.