Weird and Wonderful Books #1

Plus How the Librarians are Doing

The book cover of my library copy of Ghosts and Poltergeists. The image is of the ghost of Samuel appearing to Saul from Saul and the Witch of Endor by Benjamin West.

When I started this newsletter, one of the topics I mentioned I would cover is Weird and Wonderful Books. So far I haven’t because [too much going on—fill in the blank], but today I’m starting with one volume from a strangely delightful set of old, musty books I found in my library.

Those Buried Alive

I remember reading in Ron Chernow’s Washington that our first president was afraid of being buried alive, so he instructed, from his deathbed, that he lie in repose for three days before interment. 

Out of context, I would have found this a strange fear, but at the time, people in comas were buried alive. While this was infrequent, it happened enough that some coffins were equipped with trumpet tubes so those buried alive could call for help (or someone outside could check the smell to make sure the body was decaying). **

Those buried alive is one of the topics of Ghosts and Poltergeists, a volume of the 20-volume set A New Library of the Supernatural. I have several of these volumes, published during 1974-1976, and discarded by one of my libraries in the 2010s. The set had been available for checkout and later moved to the reference collection. The most likely reason for this would have been a complaint about the contents. And that made me curious about them. 

Take it with a Grain of Salt

The most fun aspect of these books is that they have lots of images and sidebar stories. An interested reader could peruse them for hours. However, there is no index and no endnotes. So I read them with a grain of salt. 

Ghosts and Poltergeists includes ghosts from famous literary works: Banquo in Macbeth, the Duke of Gloucester in Henry IV, Part 2, and Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. It also discusses fictional characters who are buried alive, with Edgar Allan Poe in the lead for loving to write about it. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is his most famous iteration of the theme.

There are ghosts that haunt, nonhuman ghosts (like ghost ships), poltergeists, and ghost hunters. The chapter that interested me most was about family ghosts. 

Banshee Stories

I’m hoping to write a speculative novel with a banshee guide. The few pages here on banshees (which, Ghosts notes, are also called ‘bansidhe’) describe the family protector/guardian angel sort as well as those sent to a family as a curse. These red-haired, green-eyed ‘fairy women’ warn of coming deaths in the family and also keen for the newly deceased. 

Generally, a family has to be of high station to have its own banshee. Banshees keen for heroes and legendary figures: King Connor McNessa, Finn McCool, and Brain Boru, as well as the modern Irish hero and revolutionary Michael Collins. 

Ghosts details the story of a twentieth-century Boston businessman, James O’Barry (a pseudonym—you can decide whether his story is credible). O’Barry’s family fled the Great Famine in 1848 and started a grocery store business. More than 100 years later, O’Barry and his brothers ran a supermarket chain. 

O’Barry first heard his banshee when he was a small boy. His grandfather had died. In 1946, he heard it again. He was serving in the US Air Force, far from home, but he knew this meant that his father had died. The fact was confirmed when he received word a few days later. Seventeen years passed before he heard the banshee again while on a business trip in Toronto, Canada. His first thought was to fear for his wife and children, but he felt the wail of the banshee was not for them. It was November 22, 1963. The banshee was keening over the assasination of President John F. Kennedy, with whom O’Barry was acquainted. 

So maybe O’Barry is full of malarkey 😉 , but he reminds me that I can write a character who’s been protecting and keening my own family from ancient times. Someone scary, until we understand her and her mission. Like most women throughout history. (Yes, happy Women’s History Month to you, too!)

**This is a bit off topic but if you want to read a wacky book—or better yet, if you want your kid to be interested in a book about famous people—get a hold of a copy of How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg; illustrated by Kevin O’Malley. Easy to read and contains some wild facts. Poor George Washington was bleed to death by his doctors. I reviewed it here on my School Library Lady blog.)

Thank You

Last weekend, the Inlandia event ‘Books that Made Us’ was so much fun. Thanks to the people who showed. It was great to hear the various writers talk about books that changed their lives, after which the audience was asked about theirs. A few people got up and briefly talked about their best-loved books. People covered everything from the Wizard of Oz series to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. 

Inlandia will be publishing my YA novel about a girl escaping a polygamist cult.  It’s a ways out, but they took preorders at the event anyway. A few people have asked me about the availability of preorders. Outside of last Sunday’s event, it’ll be a few months, but I will certainly shout it out when it happens.

Library and Book Ban News

How the librarians are doing

Former librarian alleges she was fired for refusing to remove books, sues county

"One of the lessons I grew up with was you don't judge anybody unless you walk a mile in their shoes," said Baker. "How do you walk a mile in their shoes, especially when it's in a small county? ... You can pick up a book at a public library, and you can walk in somebody else's shoes, and you can learn something outside of your little bubble of community. And that's what those books are so important for."

The Next Chapter In The Battle Of The Books: Librarians

Proposed law could prohibit school boards from disciplining librarians who ignore policies

Librarians support book access laws, get few calls for bans

Other book ban news

Excerpt from 60 Minutes interview of Moms for Liberty

See the full list of 97 books parents tried to ban from Beaufort, South Carolina school library shelves

This is very interesting if you are familiar with the titles of teen books.

What I'm Reading

I finished This American Ex-wife by Lyz Lenz. I was cheering her all the way. She’s right to have left over the lack of balance in her marriage. 

I’m reading The Other Americans by

Laila Lalami

because David Ulin gave it a positive review on Alta Journal. I’ve enjoyed Ulin all the way back to his days as a book critic (and then editor) at the LA Times. The Other Americans is set in California’s Mojave Desert (a place I love to read about). So far, it’s part mystery, part So Cal cultural illumination with a Moroccan family (whose husband/father dies in a hit and run) at its center. Enjoying its poignancy. (Side note: Ulin himself is the author of several books. Since everyone here is a big reader, one I know you’ll love is The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time.)