Haunted houses, screaming skulls, phantom ships, and demon dogs... - In this collection of thirteen spine-chilling ghost mysteries, Daniel Cohen dramatically describes supernatural events that people claim to have experienced. Are these people victims of their vivid imaginations or do ghosts really exist? Reading this book may help you make up your mind.
Librarian 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.
Spooky. I dont know anyone whose met a ghost. Although when I was working at NFSA and I had to lock the building up after a long late evening shift ...I swore I heard weird rattling noises in the corridor. Suffice to say i quickly locked up and walked quickly to my car! PS: Also I'm spooked by my in laws basement!
This was a very short and relatively entertaining read. The best stories are the one about the skulls, the New Orleans voodoo story, and a story about mysterious hounds. Oddly enough these stories were all back-to-back-to-back, which I guess is just a common trope for these elementary horror anthologies. If you're looking for a quick read that doesn't suck, this isn't the worst option.
I have heard most of the stories before. This is a low reading level, high frequency word book. The only one I feel is "creepy" is the second to last called "A Vision of Death."
Loved this book as a kid some of the illustrations are creepy. This reread was slightly ruined by the missing pages on the last 2 stories “A vision of death” (which had the creepiest picture on it of an eyeless head) and the “phantom hitchhiker”