The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume 4

A Valancourt Yuletide tradition returns, this time with rare 19th-century tales from U.S. newspapers and magazines

The Christmas ghost story tradition is usually associated with Charles Dickens and Victorian England, but—apparently unknown to historians and scholars—Christmas ghost stories were extremely widespread and popular in 19th-century America as well, frequently appearing in newspapers and magazines during the holiday season. From legends of old New Orleans and strange happenings on the plains of Iowa and the Dakota Territory to weird doings in early Puerto Rico and ghostly events in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, the tales collected here reveal a forgotten Christmas ghost story tradition in a bygone America that is both familiar and oddly foreign.

This collection features eighteen stories and nine poems, including entries by women and African American writers, plus extra bonus material and an introduction by Christopher Philippo.

Contents

Introduction by Christopher Philippo
1. The Green Huntsman (1841) by Joseph Holt Ingraham
2. Burt Pringle and the "Bellesnickle" (1853) by Bill Bramble
3. Worse Than a Ghost Story (1856) by Anonymous
4. The Christmas Ghost (1877) by Lucy A. Randall
5. The Frozen Husband (1869) by Frank Ibberson Jervis
6. A Sworn Statement (1881) by Emma Frances Dawson
7. The Snow Flower of the Sierras (1884) by Anonymous
8. The Devil's Christmas (1885) by Julian Hawthorne
9. Harlakenden's Christmas (1887) by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
10. The Ghostly Christmas Gift (1887) by F. H. Brunell
11. The Blizzard (1888) by Robert Barr
12. Warned by the Wire (1895) by Louis Glass
13. Poor Jack (1892) by H. C. Dodge
14. Christmas Wolves (1898) by P.-B. Gheusi
15. The Werwolves (1898) by Honoré Beaugrand
16. The Haunted Oak (1900) by Paul Laurence Dunbar
17. The Anarchist's Christmas (1901) by Anonymous
18. Camel Bells (1903) by Hezekiah Butterworth
19. The Ravings (1903) by Anonymous
20. Out of the Depths (1904) by Robert W. Chambers
21. Old Nick and Saint Nick (1906) by Wallace Irwin
22. The Cremation of Sam McGee (1907) by Robert W. Service
23. Xmas (1908) by Amorel Sterne
24. A Cubist Christmas (1913) by Kate Masterson
25. Desuetude: A Ghost Story (1914) by Anonymous
26. The Christmas Ghost (1914) by Anna Alice Chapin
27. Merry Christmas (1917) by Stephen Leacock