The Visitors

by Nathaniel Benchley

The Powell family has almost given up on finding an affordable New England house to rent for the summer when the agent shows them the old Twitchell place, offered at a suspiciously low price. What everyone in town – except the Powells – knows is that the place has been haunted ever since cantankerous sea captain Ebenezer Twitchell murdered his wife and mistress and hid their bodies in the cellar.

At first the ghosts aren’t too much of a problem, although the flying dishes and blood-dripping walls are a bit of a nuisance. But when old Uncle George arrives for a visit and the ghosts sink his boat, it becomes clear their intentions are murderous and that the Powells’ relaxing summer vacation has turned into a terrible nightmare....

A pitch-perfect blend of horror and humor with just the right balance of scares and laughs, The Visitors (1965) was adapted for the William Castle film The Spirit Is Willing (1967). This first-ever reprint features the original dust jacket art by Charles Addams (The Addams Family).

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Humor

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (1889-1945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City.

Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own peoples'.

Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.

Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.

His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."

Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I can’t exorcise three ghosts AND a poltergeist for only thirty quid!”
“Leave the poltergeist alone. I’ve grown rather fond of him.”

The stakes have never been lower in this laid back haunted house novel from the Swinging Sixties. I’m pretty sure Grady Hendrix put this on my radar. It holds up.

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very witty and comedic ghost story.

The Powells rent the old Twitchell Place for their summer escape and manage to get it at a bargain price (and with new beds), but what they didnt bargain for was that the former long dead Ebenezer Twitchell never left....

I loved the wit and the characters a lot. It's slow paced and a great lazy summer (almost autumn) read.

Also, a cracking Charles Addams cover, too...

[J Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful summer read at the shore. It is faintly related to the Movie, The Spirits Are Willing, a 1960’s flick. This is more engrossing and is full of coastal characters and the out-of-towners who make the unlucky mistake of renting the local haunted house for the summer. It is out of print, but see if the inter library loan has a copy for you to read on your iPad.

[Brent Legault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a ghost, this little novel is insubstantial. Like a ghost, only certain of us have experienced it. Like a ghost, it is moody and elusive but well worth getting a look at, getting your hands on.

[Barbara Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a wonderful and fun ghost story. Loved the character inter-action. Would recommend it for a fun read.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As you might possibly have noticed, I happen to be a dedicated fan of well-written horror novels, and particularly love reading them during the autumnal season. But as most of us know, the literary-horror category subsumes any number of subgenres, and if you were to put a gun up to my head and compel me to choose one particular favorite, I'd surely be hard pressed. Gothic horror? Vampires? Zombies? Werewolves? Body horror? Psychological horror? Witches? Psycho killers? Dark fantasy? Satanic horror? Comedic horror? Sci-fi horror? So many choices! But with that gun pressed up to my noggin, I think I'd ultimately be forced to admit that the one type of horror tale that most often satisfies me, and that almost always sends a trickle of ice water coursing down my spine, is the haunted-house novel. Over the years, I've read many such that have flabbergasted me, some outstanding examples being Ernest G. Henham's "The Feast of Bacchus" (1907), Dorothy Macardle's "The Uninvited" (1942), Evangeline Walton's "Witch House' (1945), Shirley Jackson’s "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959, and possibly the single scariest book that I've ever read), Arthur Calder-Marshall's "The Scarlet Boy" (1961), Richard Matheson's "Hell House" (1971), Robert Marasco's "Burnt Offerings" (1973), Stephen King's "The Shining" (1977, and yes, more of a haunted-hotel book, but still), Bernard Taylor's "Sweetheart, Sweetheart" (also from 1977), and Susan Hill's "The Woman in Black" (1983). And now, I am happy to report, I have found a new book (well, new to me, anyway) to add to the pantheon, namely "The Visitors" by Nathaniel Benchley.

The publishing history of this wonderfully entertaining book can be set down very succinctly. It was originally released here in the U.S. as a $4.95 McGraw Hill hardcover in 1965, boasting cover art by the great Charles Addams that itself gave a clue as to the book's half spooky/half comedic nature. Benchley's novel would be released that same year in the U.K. by the publisher Hutchinson, after which it would go OOPs (out of prints) for almost 60 years, till the fine folks at Valancourt Books opted to resurrect it in 2024, and sporting that same Charles Addams cover. So now, a new generation of readers may have an opportunity to enjoy what is surely one of the most charming haunted-house novels ever penned!

Before getting into the particulars of this delightful book, a few brief words on the author himself: Nathaniel Benchley was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1915. During the course of a prolific writing career, he would come out with 17 novels for adults and 24 books for kids, as well as a popular biography of his close friend Humphrey Bogart. His 1960 novel "Sail a Crooked Ship" would be adapted as a film in 1961; his 1961 novel "The Off-Islanders" was turned into the hit film "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" in 1966; and his seventh adult novel, "The Visitors," was turned into the film entitled "The Spirit Is Willing" in 1967. Benchley, by the way, was the son of the famed humorist and Algonquin Round Table member Robert Benchley, and would go on to father the author of "Jaws," Peter Benchley. Nathaniel passed away in 1981 at the age of 66.

Now, as to the titular visitors of the book themselves, they would be the Powell family. Stephen Powell is a 40-ish assistant magazine editor with debilitating back problems, who is married to an attractive woman named Kathryn. Their 15-year-old son Steve, as might be expected, is pretty much only interested in playing rock & roll records, saving up enough money to buy a used car, and, of course, the opposite sex. For the summer season, while Powell is on a furlough of sorts from his job, the family decides to rent out the old Twitchell house, which sits on a cliff overlooking a cove on the shore of (what is most likely) northern Massachusetts. The Twitchell house, built in 1850, is rented for a suspiciously low price, and it is only after they move in that Powell learns of the abode's reputation for being haunted. And sure enough, almost immediately, strange, poltergeistlike phenomena begin to occur (more on those later), which the family tries to ascribe to natural causes. From an elderly lady librarian, Powell learns something of the house's history; of how sea captain Ebenezer Twitchell had murdered his wife, the homely Felicity Mayhew, as well as his mistress, the plump blonde prostitute Jenny, within the house's walls. Now firmly convinced that his summer home is haunted, Powell is yet willing to put up with the ghostly pranks...until things turn decidedly more serious.

When Kathryn's millionaire Uncle George arrives for a visit, bringing along his wife Estelle, his yacht is moored in the cove below the house. This ship is later sunk mysteriously--after Estelle sees a naked, plump blonde woman walking belowdecks--resulting in the death/disappearance of its captain. The manifestations inside the Powell abode intensify, while Kathryn begins to worry about her husband's sanity as his talk of ghosts continues. The elderly librarian contacts Jenny during a séance and is able to confirm what she already knew: The spirits of Felicity and Jenny--both essentially playful but nonviolent--do still reside in the house, as well as the spirit of Ebenezer himself--a decidedly malignant entity. And when one of the Powell family is found hanging by the neck from the attic rafters, almost to the point of death, after having had a dream about a sea captain, it is realized that matters truly have grown very serious, indeed....

As the half eerie/half comic cover art of Charles Addams so deftly conveys, "The Visitors" is a book that dishes out expertly balanced scares and laughs. Although assuredly not as chilling as any of those other classic novels mentioned above, the book yet has more than a few unsettling moments. In the early phases of the Powells' residence at Twitchell house, china breaks, beer steins are thrown, a stack of Steve's records falls to the floor, and blood appears on his bedroom wall! Footsteps are heard at night, Powell sees a homely woman gazing at him in a bathroom mirror, and the door to the cellar (which once connected to the cove via a tunnel before being bricked up) keeps opening by itself, even after being bolted! A local diver is almost scared to death by...something while swimming around the sunken yacht, while the salvage team's efforts to raise the wreck keep being strangely thwarted. An exorcist's attempt to cleanse the house results in him fleeing, shrieking and bloodied, into the night, and Steve's romantic gesture of showing a new lady friend the cove at dusk proves singularly disastrous. And who is that strange man dressed as a sea captain at the big costume party that the Powells throw...a silent figure who somehow lures Kathryn down into the cellar? As I say, Benchley's novel surely has enough creepy moments to satisfy most of the horror buffs out there, and then some.

And these are set against the book's many moments of gentle, unforced humor. It is hard to put one's finger on just what makes the book so amusing, but let's try with some examples. When Steve learns of his parents' decision to rent the old Twitchell place, he (somewhat prophetically) declares "That place is Devil's Island. The Black Hole of Calcutta. Only creeps and spastics and the walking dead go there!" He is later heard employing the expression "Hot spitooley"! The two handymen who prepare the Twitchell abode for the Powells' arrival are named (get ready for this!) Fess Dorple and "Rabbit" Warren, and Warren is, early on, seen munching on a banana and liverwurst sandwich! The banter of the two men and their barfly comrades at the local pub is fairly priceless, as are their conversations anent ghostly matters. And how's this for a chuckle: We are told that Uncle George had met Estelle "at a circus fire in Waukegan, and had been attracted by her red hair and her ample pectoral development"! Amusingly, the ghostly figure of Jenny pretty much always seems to be naked (and ready for action!), goosing several males at the Powells' party. And speaking of that party, how funny is it when the librarian, who communes with deceased celebrities on a regular basis, has her personality taken over by the spirit of no less a figure than Harriet Beecher Stowe, to the consternation of a visiting psychiatrist? It would seem that Nathaniel Benchley inherited more than a little of his famous father's gift for dry humor (anyone who has seen Robert Benchley in films of the 1930s and '40s, and more especially in his beloved "How To" shorts, will know precisely what I'm talking about here), and one of the book's many charms is the consistently droll tone that he manages to employ throughout.

"The Visitors" also manages to win the reader over by dint of the three hugely likable lead characters who we are given. Powell, despite being initially presented as something of a sad-sack loser, turns out to be not only a loving, patient and understanding husband and father, but also a good man to have around in an emergency situation. It is he who divines the nature of the house almost from the beginning, he who digs for answers, and he who ultimately takes decisive action. Kathryn, the hardheaded materialist, is a woman who gains our sympathies as a result of her helplessness and confusion, while Steve, over the course of the summer, changes from a 15-year-old sullen brat to a 16-year-old, more-mature young adult. The scenes between father and son, as they discuss jobs, cars and dating, are very well handled, too. The book's secondary characters are also very efficiently drawn, be it the obnoxiously overbearing Uncle George, the ditzy (and curiously unnamed) librarian whose hobby is speaking with Martha Washington on a daily basis (!), or those constantly amusing barflies down at the local pub. Uncle George has an especially interesting story arc, and the rough edges on his character are sanded down quite a bit as the events of the summer progress and his marriage with Estelle founders. As you might be able to tell, the book is almost as concerned with the Powell family's internal dynamics and its summer doings (Steve's birthday, his first car, his first girl; Powell's job problems and physical ailments) as it is with the three ghosts that one might have thought would be its primary concern, but as I say, the balance is so perfect and the characters so winning that the reader accepts it all happily. And with Benchley's wonderfully readable style of writing, surely fit for a YA audience, the book is a compulsive page-turner, as well!

For the rest of it, I might add that "The Visitors" features almost as much drinking (on the part of Powell, Uncle George and those pub denizens) as any book I've ever read by the great comic fantasist Thorne Smith. The laughs here might not be as plentiful as in a Smith book, but the booze surely does flow as hard! One especially interesting aspect of Benchley's book is the fact that a belief in ghosts and the supernatural functions as a guarantee of mental security in a case such as this; a nonbelief, on the other hand, spells the beginning of madness. As the librarian tells Powell early on, "All you need is to believe. It's the people who don't believe who go crazy, because they have no way to explain what they've seen." And poor Kathryn surely does get close to the mental brink as events proceed here! I should perhaps also admit that not every item in this book is explained (or is perhaps even explainable), and the fate of that yacht captain, and the seeming appearance of Uncle George near the book's end, remain largely imponderable. I was fine with that, however. After all, when dealing with the paranormal, how can one expect everything to be tied up with a nice neat bow at the end? And "The Visitors" also gives the reader some wonderful words of wisdom regarding a fit and proper breakfast; words that The Doors' frontman Jim Morrison would surely have appreciated. As Uncle George tells us, "Beer is all the breakfast I need...Beer contains malt, yeast, and hops, to say nothing of the sugar in the alcohol. Any man who can't get along on that needs a crutch." I love it!

"The Visitors," as I mentioned, was later adapted as the big-screen entertainment entitled "The Spirit Is Willing," directed by the great William Castle. The movie stars a well-cast Vera Miles as Kathryn, an inappropriately cast Sid Caesar as Powell, and a wholly inappropriate John McGiver as Uncle George. No, I haven't seen the film, but the trailer reveals the picture to be decidedly on the goofy side, a suspicion only reinforced by the blurb on the film's poster reading "Kiss-Hungry Girl Ghosts Looking for a Live Lover in a Haunted House of Mayhem." And a quick glance at the film's synopsis shows all the many silly changes that were made to Benchley's original concept. Still, the film does admittedly feature a pretty terrific roster of supporting players. In addition to the three leads, we also have such beloved character actors as Mary Wickes, Jesse White, Jay C. Flippen, Doodles Weaver, John Astin, Harvey Lembeck (who had also appeared in "Sail a Crooked Ship"), and even Castle himself! As something of a William Castle horror completist, I would surely be willing to sit in front of this thing one day, but have a feeling that it cannot possibly compare to the chills and unforced humor of Benchley's novel.

Indeed, "The Visitors" is an almost perfect piece of work, and I only say "almost perfect" because of two very minor details. For one thing, I could not be sure whether or not the three ghosts haunting Twitchell house had truly been "laid" by the book's conclusion. The issue would seem to be very much, uh, up in the air. And then there's the fairly egregious boo-boo surrounding "Rabbit" Warren's real first name. On page 21 of this Valancourt edition we're told that it's Arthur, whereas 13 pages later it is said to be Robert. Oopsie! But these are relatively minor matters, and I for one loved every moment of Nathaniel Benchley's truly splendid work here, and was sorry to see it end. I would have even appreciated a sequel to this book, featuring the three ghosts seen here or not. The Powell family is one that I would have enjoyed seeing more of, especially what with Dad starting a new job and Steve getting a new car. And what is Uncle George going to do with his own private army in Peru, anyway? "Enquiring minds want to know"! Anyway, Roald Dahl once wrote that books should be "funny, exciting and wonderful," and I do believe that he might have enjoyed this one....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of well-written horror fare....)

[Magdalena Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, little black comedy about a family who moves into a haunted house and things begin to happen. I liked the main couple and their teenage son Stevie, the locals were fun, but bloody uncle George was sooo annoying. Written in the 60s (so be aware there are a few words people wouldn't really use in a normal conversation today), The Visitors is like a William Castle film in a book form, which funnily enough is a real thing - Castle adapted the book in 1967 as The Spirit Is Willing. I really like this new Valancourt edition and the cover art is by Charles Addams!

[Sten Maulsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light and fun read. It's perhaps both more dated and less serious than some of his other books. The reason I like to come back and read him every few years is that there's a theme that keeps coming up in his books (the four I've read, anyway): there's always someone, some times a minor character, sometimes major ones, who is stuck in their place in life, and manages to walk away and start all over.

[Orlando Fato · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world where we are constantly told on social media about "must-read" books that are "life-changing," Nathaniel Benchley’s The Visitors is a refreshing reminder that simple is often better. It won’t redefine your existence, and that’s exactly why it works; it's a story that prioritizes solid, unpredictable craftsmanship over trying to be a grand manifesto.

The book acts as a time capsule, offering a glimpse into a pre-tech world where life moved slower and fun was simpler. It makes you yearn for a way of life we’ve largely lost. While characters like Uncle George can be tiresome and Kathryn is definitely stubborn, Powell and Stevie provide the real heart of the book. They aren't just flat characters; they deal with genuine angst that leads to actual development. Powell is grappling with a classic midlife crisis, while Stevie is navigating a turbulent coming-of-age crisis. Watching them navigate these internal struggles keeps the story grounded, even when the plot can a couple of times border on the rather silly; like the introduction of Dr. O'Connor, the Irish magician-exorcist, and the librarian-medium, who holds séances.

The plot is solid and the twists are genuinely unpredictable, though I did find myself wishing the ghosts had manifested more often. However, the haunting is handled with a mix of sometimes silly and sometimes evil touch that makes the supernatural engaging.

This book reminds me of two other titles reissued by Valancourt Books: Edgar Mittelholzer’s Eltonsbrody (Caribbean Gothic) and The Weather in Middenshot (Gothic Horror). Much like The Visitors, these books shine by sticking to the basics of atmosphere and suspense. They share the same appeal of proving that going back to basics and reconsidering simple, yet unpredictable, plots is well worth the effort.

[Andy Weston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Valancourt have the knack of discovering neglected horror and mystery novels that have lain peacefully out of print for years. The majority of those that I have read, I greatly enjoy, but not so with this.
It’s a standard cosy haunted house story with very little that is special to make it stand out. It’s also remarkably low on twists and terror for a horror story, I suspect it is also a bit dated.
It might work better marketed towards a young adult audience.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This just hit that sweet spot between slightly eerie and consistently witty. It's neither hilarious nor terrifying, but enough of both to be a highly enjoyable 200 page reading experience. Note to modern novelists: it's okay to have actually likable characters going through your plots. And I loved the writing enough (Peter Benchley's dad!) to seek out other Nathaniel titles. Now to track down the William Castle film adaptation...

[Griffin Luxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a perfect summer read this was. It’s a ghost story that takes place in a New England town occupied by a colorful cast of locals. It’s both a horror story and a comedy, but it definitely leans more towards comedy with a very dry sense of humor. Almost every scene involving the local librarian or Uncle George cracked me up, and it’s hard to make me laugh.

[Creolecat]

The Spirit is Willing (1967)

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very entertaining ghost story set in an old haunted house. It fun to watch the various characters get put through the paces by the three ghosts, only one of which is pure evil.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sly mid-1960s humor that reminded me so much of comedy when I was a kid, raised on MAD magazine.

[Jocelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book at a library sale because it said "Benchley" on the cover. It was kind of fun to read but nothing special. Probably nobody would even publish it today. It's about a family that rents a haunted house for the summer. I liked the hard-drinking, androcentric 1960s setting. (The book was published in '65.) Don't ask me why, since there's nothing about the hard-drinking androcentric life that I particularly value.

[Control · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book that the movie "The Spirit is Willing" was based on

[Chris Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book scared me. I still remember it.