Haunted America: Star-Spangled Supernatural Stories

by Marvin Kaye (Editor), Saralee Kaye (Editor), Edward D. Hoch (Contributor)

Contents:
NEW ENGLAND : The triumph of night / Edith Wharton --
The white old maid / Nathaniel Hawthorne --
Victoria / Ogden Nash --
The terrible old man / H.P. Lovecraft --
The problem of the pilgrims windmill / Edward Hoch --
The romance of certain old clothes / Henry James --
Bones / Donald Wollheim --
The vacant lot / Mary Freeman --
THE EAST : A curious dream / Mark Twain --
The man who collected Poe / Robert Bloch --
Guests from Gibbet Island / Washington Irving --
Our late visitor / Marvin Kaye --
The girl with the beckoning eyes / Bernhardt Hurwood --
Ghosts / Don Marquis --
The ghost of Washington / Anonymous --
The headless horseman of Paoli / Darrell Schweitzer --
Artemisia's mirror / Bertha Runkle --
Unto the fourth generation / Isaac Asimov --
THE SOUTH : The spook house / Ambrose Bierce --
The shot-tower ghost / Mary Counselman --
A tale of the ragged mountains / Edgar Poe --
Come to the party / Frances Garfield --
Nobody ever goes there / Manly Wellman --
Ghost of Buckstown Inn / Arnold M. Anderson --
The stuffed alligator / L. Frank Baum --
The house of the nightmare / Edward White --
The elemental / Frank Long --
We are the dead / Henry Kuttner --
THE WEST : The destruction of Smith / Algernon Blackwood --
The return of the Moresbys / Henry Slesar --
The rider on the pale horse / Helen Eustis --
The glove / Fritz Leiber, Jr. --
Kaena Point / C.H. Sherman --
Atrocities / Jessica Salmonson --
Gibbler's ghost / William Nolan --
They bite / Anthony Boucher --
Miracle at Chimayo / Carole Bugge --
Slaughter house / Richard Matheson --
THE MIDWEST : The dead remember / Robert Howard --
The night the ghost got in / James Thurber --
Dumb supper / Henderson Starke --
The fear that walks by noonday / Willa Cather --
The Chadwick pit / Carl Jacobi --
The Return of Andrew Bentley / August W. Derleth and Mark Schorer --
Away / Barry N. Malzberg --
The Strange Guests / Anonymous --
Another Chance for Casey / Larry Siegel

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Paranormal, Nonfiction, Mystery, Anthologies, Classics

582 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Marvin Nathan Kaye was an American mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror author, anthologist, and editor. He was also a magician and theater actor. Kaye was a World Fantasy Award winner and served as co-publisher and editor of Weird Tales Magazine.

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of Ghost and supernatural stories, some of which are truly gripping. As per the title, there are stories set in most states, grouped by region - New England, The East, The South, The West, and The Midwest. At the end, Kaye added an appendix listing allegedly haunted sites in each state, which since this book came out in 1990, is probably way outdated. The authors of the stories themselves range from well-known writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, Washington Irving & Edgar Allan Poe through H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Willa Cather, and many more or less obscure ones. An excellent anthology!

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of stories.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most of these anthologies, I didn't like all of the stories, but most of them were great and the FIRST one by Edith Wharton is beautifully done!!

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories, ranging from the truly frightening and gripping to the stilted and awkward. But overall, a worthwhile read. The appendix of haunted sites at the end is a nice touch.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining collection.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this anthology on my bookshelf since I was a teen, and it has some pretty big names in literature (Isaac Asimov, Willa Cather, Henry James, H. P. Lovecraft, and many more).

Nearly thirty years later, I felt like re-reading it for the Halloween season.

It was a good distraction from the horrors of American politics, but the stories were a mixed bag, and I'll probably pass it along now.

Note that this whole book can be borrowed from the Internet Archive. I'll also include a few links to stories I especially liked that are in the public domain.

Since I haven't read any ghost stories or horror stories for a while, I steeled myself to be scared, but actually found it much harder as a 40-year-old to suspend my disbelief than when I was 13. I also felt more familiar with the genre tropes, so some things that would have amazed me or frightened me as a teenager felt tired to me now.

The stories are organized by U.S. region, starting with New England. I won't review every story, but I did have some favorites. In this section, "Victoria" by Ogden Nash stood out for its brevity and creepiness--a young lady at a girls' school dares to go read a witch's headstone. "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" by Henry James is a bit of a flowery old story about love, sibling rivalry, and supernatural justice.

In The East, "The Girl with the Beckoning Eyes" by Bernhardt J. Hurwood had some uncomfortable truth in it--how a young person's obsession with a love interest, in this story's case an undead one, can go wrong. I read of a real case in the news recently of an AI bot associated with a young man's suicide, which had eerie parallels to this fictional story. "Artemisia's Mirror" by Bertha Runkle was another in a more Victorian style infused with romance, mystery, and family history--it remains one of my favorites in the collection.

The section on The South didn't yield any particular favorites for me, but I will say southern writers definitely have an edge on the creepiness factor. I don't know what all it is--maybe echoes of war, or the thought of driving around some of the emptier parts of the southern countryside.

Some of the stories under The West category, on the other hand, were in my opinion some of the best overall (although my opinion is biased, living in Washington state). "The Rider on the Pale Horse" (published elsewhere as "Mr. Death and the Redheaded Woman") by Helen Eustis had dialect done well (not easy to do) and a comical, yet moving story about a budding romance with Death. "Gibbler's Ghost" by William F. Nolan is the comedy of a megastar haunted by a ghost tied to a family tragedy who, hilariously, only appears when the star is trying to have sex. "They Bite" by Anthony Boucher is one of the most truly creepy stories in the collection--the protagonist deserves what he gets, but the horror of... weird brown mummy-things... little... with the teeth... you see them in the corner of your eye... (shivers). "Miracle at Chimayo" by Carole Buggé is a sad, gentle story taking place near the Sangre de Cristo mountains--another one related to family history and also faith (in a non-corny way) which I liked. Finally "Slaughter House" by Richard Matheson is a masterful story of two close brothers who buy a house on the cheap, followed by their discovery of its haunting that builds to a crescendo of horror.

In The Midwest section, "Dumb Supper" by Henderson Starke was the saddest and creepiest to me (I think there is something about girls, cliques, and witchcraft that especially creeps me out). A cruel group of girls convinces the new girl in town to perform a "dumb supper," in which she bakes cornbread with some backwards directions, serves it silently, and is supposed to see a living ghost that will reveal the face of her future husband. Instead, the process reveals something the girl feared, but did not expect...

Overall, the anthology is worth a read and is interesting in that it collects a lot of short stories that are hard to find anywhere else. I'm glad it's available through the Internet Archive.

[Vicki G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still want to know what the first story in this book was about. 'The Triumph of Night,' by Edith Wharton.
BTW it's probably NOT possible for the guy to have been bleeding any significant quantity of fluid and blood from his neck without passing out and eventually dying a LOT faster than the author had it happening. That's why I'm confused.
I see neck wounds almost every single week, sometimes two and three times a DAY. Patients bleeding from that area go under (pass out) pretty damn fast. If they take longer, then the chances that they're going to die, especially in a cold environment and a patient in his early 20's, are pretty slim.
Even at the turn of the 20th Century, this observation was more true than false.
I have a minor pet peeve about mangled medical scenes. Not so bad that I didn't like the story though, b/c it was about a supernatural warning of his death, not his actual process of dying. And the information was so obtuse or frankly screwed up that it's going to make a difference to any but me and others who have a habit of being exact in our work.
That exactness saves people's lives. That and how fast you get to the scene and get the patient to the hospital so a doctor can see them.