poliphilo: (bah)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2015-06-10 10:52 am

Mary E Wilkins

The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories features work by many all but forgotten authors- some whose present obscurity is no great surprise and others who deserve better.

So here's a shout-out for Mary E Wilkins* (1852-1930) a prolific American novelist and short story writer whose "The Lost Ghost" has everything you want from the genre- genuine chills, considerable pathos and (not to be discounted) a convincing social framework to accentuate the otherness of the ghostly goings-on.

I've just ordered her collection The Wind in The Rose Bush from Amazon.

*She married late in life and is also known as Wilkins-Freeman.