Thirteen Ghosts for your Halloween reading, from the pages of Weird Tales. (In honor of William Castle and Scooby-Doo.) By no means every ghost story from “The Unique Magazine”, here is a selection of tales you probably haven’t read before. I have avoided certain obvious writers like Mary Elizabeth Counselman who wrote mostly ghost stories. Others like Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, Kuttner, etc. all slipped in a ghost of sorts here and there but again I have avoided them. Three exceptions: August Derleth, Seabury Quinn and H. Russell Wakefield, but I have avoided both Mythos, Jules de Grandin and over-anthologized pieces.
As a character in a Casper cartoon might say, let’s enjoy some: “G-G-Ghosts!”
“The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee” (May 1926) by Arthur J. Burks, the Million-Words- a-Year Man. Burks was a retired Navy officer who wrote for all kinds of Pulps. After the Pulps died, he became a spiritualist medium (according to Ryerson Johnson). In many of these ghost stories, fake mediums meet real ghosts. I wonder if Burks ever did?
“Phantom Fingers” (May 1927) by Robert S. Carr, the most famous protege of Farnsworth Wright. This author of “Spider Bite” went on to write mainstream fiction like The Rampant Age (1928). Carr’s tale of ghostly hands that come out of the aether for revenge was a popular idea at WT. Carr wasn’t the first or last.
“A Suitor from the Shades” (June 1927) by Greye La Spina, the Great Lady of Weird Tales, having begun her writing career in The Thrill Book in 1919. Again not a really new idea, Mary Braddon wrote “Eveline’s Visitant” in 1867. La Spina’s tale ends happier.
“The Ghost Ship” (February 1929) by Arlton Eadie, is not the famous tale by Richard Middleton, but one by another Brit. Eadie’s tale actually has more to do with the sea, with his sunken ship, the Valhalla.
“The Answer of the Dead” (February 1932) by J. Paul Suter was a follow up by a writer who made a splash with “Beyond the Door”. None of his later stories had quite the same punch.
“The Sheraton Mirror” (September 1932) by August Derleth has a mirror that ghosts use to haunt the living. This idea would be used in Poltergeist 3 to much less effect. Derleth wrote literally 100 stories for Weird Tales, most ghost stories.
“The Whistling Corpse” (July 1937) by G. G. Pendarves follows a long tradition of ghost stories that take place on a ship. “The Upper Berth” by F. Marion Crawford and Frank Belknap Long’s “Second Night Out” come to mind.
“The Considerate Hosts” (December 1939) by Thorp McClusky features ghostly revenge tempered by good manners.
“The White Lady” (January 1942) by Dorothy Quick features another popular idea, the imaginary ghost that proves not-so-imaginary.
“Louella Goes Home” (September 1943) by Seabury Quinn is a non-de Grandin tale about a child ghost. Featuring a young ghost usually means the story will be softer in tone. And then there is Agatha Christie’s “The Last Seance”!
“The Dear Departed” (May 1944) by Mary-Alice Schnirring, another obscure, later WT writer and a seance that leads to trouble. A. Conan Doyle used the idea in “Through the Veil” (1910).
“What Beckoning Ghost?” (July 1948) by Harold Lawlor, a prolific if not well-remembered author at Weird Tales. Like Frank Owen, Lawlor appeared in dozens of issues, but never made a splash.
“A Black Solitude” (March 1951) by H. Russell Wakefield was a welcome piece from the end days of Weird Tales. By 1951 many writers were moving on but Wakefield stayed longer than some. A Wakefield tale is worthy of a cover!
