Ghosts, Ghosts, GHOSTS: Stories of Spooks and Spirits, Haunts and Hobgoblins, Werewolves and Will-o’-the-Wisps

Title: Ghosts, Ghosts, GHOSTS: Stories of Spooks and Spirits, Haunts and Hobgoblins, Werewolves and Will-o’-the Wisps

Author: stories selected by Phyllis R. Fenner; illustrated by Manning deV. Lee

Publisher Information: New York, N.Y.: Franklin Watts, 1952.

Library of Congress Classification: PZ8.1

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

Ghost stories—Juvenile fiction

This book is an anthology of short stories from many different sources. It was illustrated by Manning deV. Lee, who was a well-known painter and illustrator. I bought it when I was a teenager years ago from the Wilkinsburg Public Library, which was selling the damaged book for a pittance. In 2005, I bought another copy to replace the one in my collection.

The first story, Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons, by Walter R. Brooks, always made me smile. Jimmy learns to disappear from a ghost haunting his aunt’s house, then, with his aunt’s help, drives the ghost out of the house. My Own True Ghost Story, by Rudyard Kipling, turns out to be, in the light of day, a misunderstanding of circumstance. The House of Ocean Born Mary, by Marion Lowndes, was from an anthology of supposedly true ghost stories. The John Kendrick Bangs story, The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall, deals with the problem of a haunting, namely, how does one get a ghost to stop doing it? Fiddler, Play Fast, Play Faster, by Ruth Sawyer, is about a young fiddler on the Isle of Man who ends up playing for the Devil and his minions. The shortest story is The Golden Arm, by Joseph Jacobs, which tells the story of what happens when a man takes his dead wife’s golden arm. Irving Crump’s Dead Men on Parade deals with escape from a watery grave. Probably the most famous story is by Stephen Vincent Benet, The Devil and Daniel Webster. This is always a fun story to read as Daniel Webster argues in the court of the Devil for the soul of a New Hampshire man—and his own soul, which is what ole’ Scratch really wants.

In all there are fourteen short stories that can be read to children, and each one is accompanied by a Lee illustration. They are not very scary. Phyllis Reid Fenner was a children’s librarian who firmly believed that librarians had a duty to help teach children by creating supportive environments in libraries through a variety of activities. She created story anthologies on a variety of subjects for children and wrote on children’s librarianship. She was the longtime companion of the photographer, Clara Sipprell.

A fun read.