What do you think?
Rate this book
The World's Most Famous Ghost
Presents accounts of well-known ghosts that haunt the White House, the Tower of London, and several other places.
99 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
1 person is currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Cohen
204 books58 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Daniel Edward Cohen was born on March 12, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was very young and his mother, Sue Greenberg, married Milton Cohen, a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Daniel Cohen attended Chicago public schools and was a "hanger-on" in the bohemian community around the University of Chicago while in high school in the early 1950s. He attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where he abandoned an interest in biology for journalism. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism in 1958. Cohen married Susan Handler, a writer, on February 2, 1958. He briefly worked as a proofreader for Time, Inc. in Chicago; but, demoralized by the paternalistic organizational culture, he took a job as assistant editor of Science Digest magazine in 1959. He was transferred to New York City shortly after being hired.
In addition to his editorial work, Cohen wrote articles for Science Digest and for other publications. Encouraged by praise of his articles on paranormal subjects, Cohen published his first book, Myths of the Space Age, a collection of skeptical essays on paranormal creatures and phenomena, in 1967. The Cohens moved to a farmhouse in Forestburgh, New York, in 1969 so Daniel could write full time. He originally planned to write popular science books, but the demands of the market led him to concentrate on books about ghosts, monsters, UFOs, and psychic phenomena. Since then, Daniel Cohen has written on an astonishing variety of subjects beyond just the paranormal: historical and current biographies; advice for teenagers; world history; science and technology; animals and nature; urban legends; and popular television, music, film, and sports personalities. He has noted that he writes mass-market paperbacks for children who are reluctant to read and not especially gifted. Thus, he chooses subjects of interest to such readers.
Susan Cohen was born on March 27, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, to Martin and Ida (Goldman) Handler. She earned a B.A. degree from the New School for Social Research in 1960 and an M.S.W. degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, in 1962. She worked as a social worker in the mid-1960s before writing The Liberated Couple, a feminist tract, in 1971. She wrote eleven gothic romances and mysteries under the penname Elizabeth St. Clair between 1974 and 1981. Susan and Daniel Cohen began collaborating on books in 1982 to help alleviate Daniel's workload. They have written books primarily on popular entertainment, advice for teenagers, and animals. The Cohens currently live in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.
Daniel Edward Cohen was born on March 12, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was very young and his mother, Sue Greenberg, married Milton Cohen, a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Daniel Cohen attended Chicago public schools and was a "hanger-on" in the bohemian community around the University of Chicago while in high school in the early 1950s. He attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where he abandoned an interest in biology for journalism. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism in 1958. Cohen married Susan Handler, a writer, on February 2, 1958. He briefly worked as a proofreader for Time, Inc. in Chicago; but, demoralized by the paternalistic organizational culture, he took a job as assistant editor of Science Digest magazine in 1959. He was transferred to New York City shortly after being hired.
In addition to his editorial work, Cohen wrote articles for Science Digest and for other publications. Encouraged by praise of his articles on paranormal subjects, Cohen published his first book, Myths of the Space Age, a collection of skeptical essays on paranormal creatures and phenomena, in 1967. The Cohens moved to a farmhouse in Forestburgh, New York, in 1969 so Daniel could write full time. He originally planned to write popular science books, but the demands of the market led him to concentrate on books about ghosts, monsters, UFOs, and psychic phenomena. Since then, Daniel Cohen has written on an astonishing variety of subjects beyond just the paranormal: historical and current biographies; advice for teenagers; world history; science and technology; animals and nature; urban legends; and popular television, music, film, and sports personalities. He has noted that he writes mass-market paperbacks for children who are reluctant to read and not especially gifted. Thus, he chooses subjects of interest to such readers.
Susan Cohen was born on March 27, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, to Martin and Ida (Goldman) Handler. She earned a B.A. degree from the New School for Social Research in 1960 and an M.S.W. degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, in 1962. She worked as a social worker in the mid-1960s before writing The Liberated Couple, a feminist tract, in 1971. She wrote eleven gothic romances and mysteries under the penname Elizabeth St. Clair between 1974 and 1981. Susan and Daniel Cohen began collaborating on books in 1982 to help alleviate Daniel's workload. They have written books primarily on popular entertainment, advice for teenagers, and animals. The Cohens currently live in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 23, 2021
Yes, Daniel Cohen does in his 1979 The World’s Most Famous Ghosts present some interesting and at times also rather horrifyingly penned accounts of famous (and also of course infamous) ghosts and haunted houses that are considered to represent reality, that are reputed to be showing readers the truth (in other words bona fide historical reality).
And indeed, I certainly have been adequately entertained and even to a point more than a trifle enlightened by The World’s Most Famous Ghosts and in particular Daniel Cohen’s descriptions of haunted New Orleans (which definitely was rather uncanny with its references to voodoo), haunted Great Britain (and especially the benevolent theatre ghosts of Drury Lane and the many and diverse spirits supposedly haunting the Tower of London), the repeated spiritual returnings of certain American presidents and vice presidents, tales phantom ships and also how heiress Sarah Winchester actually built a huge mansion for ghosts in California to assuage the guilt she was feeling regarding the Winchester Rifle and its many victims (and therefore, I guess that Sarah Winchester kind of did believe that guns do in fact kill and that firearms are or at least can be a huge danger and threat, and are therefore also not simply a symbol of freedom and liberty).
However, even with my general enjoyment of The World’s Most Famous Ghosts there are a number of for me problematic academic issues that prevent me from considering a higher rating than two stars.
For one, I do wish that Daniel Cohen’s text were a bit more academically and logistically balanced, as he (in my humble opinion) certainly seems to write his ghost accounts in The World’s Most Famous Ghosts as though readers should simply believe them all to be absolutely true and realistic (even though other accounts regarding many of the same scenarios and ghost sightings I have previously perused do in fact point out and often also with verifiable proof that for the vast majority of the ghost tales presented by Daniel Cohen in The World’s Most Famous Ghosts there is either insufficient evidence to categorically be declaring them as being true or that they have in fact been declared to be either be figments of individuals’ overly active imaginations or unfortunately quite deliberate hoaxes).
For two (and really quite academically annoyingly), the absence of ANY kind of secondary source acknowledgements (no footnotes, no endnotes, no bibliography), this really limits both the supplemental research value and for me personally also the believability of The World’s Most Famous Ghosts (since without Daniel Cohen letting us know his sources, it is also impossible to know what is true, what is hear say and what is Daniel Cohen making up stories).
And finally, and for three, I also do have a minor but still personally annoying issue with the fact that albeit Daniel Cohen has titled this book as The World’s Most Famous Ghosts, well, for and to me, Cohen’s presented ghost stories are actually not really all that global, not all that international in scope, since they are for the most part either based in the United Kingdom or in the United States, and yes, that for a truly international book of “true” ghost stories, Daniel Cohen should also and of course be featuring ghostly tales of hauntings from other parts of the world, “true” ghost stories from Central and Eastern Europe, from Asia, Australia, South America etc.
And indeed, I certainly have been adequately entertained and even to a point more than a trifle enlightened by The World’s Most Famous Ghosts and in particular Daniel Cohen’s descriptions of haunted New Orleans (which definitely was rather uncanny with its references to voodoo), haunted Great Britain (and especially the benevolent theatre ghosts of Drury Lane and the many and diverse spirits supposedly haunting the Tower of London), the repeated spiritual returnings of certain American presidents and vice presidents, tales phantom ships and also how heiress Sarah Winchester actually built a huge mansion for ghosts in California to assuage the guilt she was feeling regarding the Winchester Rifle and its many victims (and therefore, I guess that Sarah Winchester kind of did believe that guns do in fact kill and that firearms are or at least can be a huge danger and threat, and are therefore also not simply a symbol of freedom and liberty).
However, even with my general enjoyment of The World’s Most Famous Ghosts there are a number of for me problematic academic issues that prevent me from considering a higher rating than two stars.
For one, I do wish that Daniel Cohen’s text were a bit more academically and logistically balanced, as he (in my humble opinion) certainly seems to write his ghost accounts in The World’s Most Famous Ghosts as though readers should simply believe them all to be absolutely true and realistic (even though other accounts regarding many of the same scenarios and ghost sightings I have previously perused do in fact point out and often also with verifiable proof that for the vast majority of the ghost tales presented by Daniel Cohen in The World’s Most Famous Ghosts there is either insufficient evidence to categorically be declaring them as being true or that they have in fact been declared to be either be figments of individuals’ overly active imaginations or unfortunately quite deliberate hoaxes).
For two (and really quite academically annoyingly), the absence of ANY kind of secondary source acknowledgements (no footnotes, no endnotes, no bibliography), this really limits both the supplemental research value and for me personally also the believability of The World’s Most Famous Ghosts (since without Daniel Cohen letting us know his sources, it is also impossible to know what is true, what is hear say and what is Daniel Cohen making up stories).
And finally, and for three, I also do have a minor but still personally annoying issue with the fact that albeit Daniel Cohen has titled this book as The World’s Most Famous Ghosts, well, for and to me, Cohen’s presented ghost stories are actually not really all that global, not all that international in scope, since they are for the most part either based in the United Kingdom or in the United States, and yes, that for a truly international book of “true” ghost stories, Daniel Cohen should also and of course be featuring ghostly tales of hauntings from other parts of the world, “true” ghost stories from Central and Eastern Europe, from Asia, Australia, South America etc.
July 23, 2023
exactly what youd expect. a very bland telling of ghost stories at a childrens level. not spooky or anything, just some history on the ghosts or who they suspect the ghosts to be and what people have said about them. bland. bland. bland. a 2.5/5 i suppose
January 26, 2012
It’s a VERY quick read 30-60 minutes depending on if you are a speed reader or an adult. I’m sure there are probably other books out there that go into more graphic detail about the hauntings that are mentioned in this book. But this one IS for children so I imagine they tone it down a lot. I’ve reread it now, and see no reason for me to read it again, I only wanted to reread it since I recently just found it in a pile of ghost books and it was a short book. I'm sure I can find better detailed stories and better writing out there on the internet or in other books. For a more in-depth review of this book, please visit my horror movie blog @ Shivers of Horror
May 11, 2020
I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in history. This book gives amazing insight to tales/legends/beliefs of what happened to people/places.
I only gave this book 3 stars because although it was very interesting, I found it hard to be captivated by the stories written about.
I only gave this book 3 stars because although it was very interesting, I found it hard to be captivated by the stories written about.
October 17, 2021
This was a quick easy read that I really enjoyed!
June 26, 2025
Not saying ghosts aren’t real but some of these stories probably have a logical explanation
October 27, 2013
An excellent book to introduce the curious and intelligent child to the world of real ghosts! This book, purchased at a school book fair many years ago, was my first book of real ghost stories, and it is one I continue to enjoy today. The stories are simply worded and elegantly creepy, with a good amount of historical fact wound in amongst legend and myth. The author focuses mostly on American and British Isles ghost stories, and the characters include presidents and royalty as well as common folk and criminals. I highly recommend tracking down a copy of this book if you have a child who enjoys stories of things that go bump in the night.
September 15, 2015
I read this book in a day and I am better for it, but the best part was definitely the full-page photo of Abraham Lincoln, with caption: "Abraham Lincoln. America's Most Famous Ghost."
March 8, 2016
Good young adult or older children's book.
March 30, 2011
it was a good book for people who love ghost stories
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews