The Best Psychic Stories

by Walter F. Prince, Algernon Blackwood, Katherine Rickford, Andrew Jackson Davis, Edgar Allan Poe

Overview

This collection contains a mixture of stories about ghosts and contacts from spirits, some by celebrated authors, together with essays on psychical research.

As Joseph French notes in the preface, even for the skeptic, tales of ghostly activity retain a distinct fascination. The widespread interest in psychic phenomena in the early twentieth century proved to be a significant stimulus to literary production.

CONTENTS

1) “When the World was Young” by Jack London
2) “The Return” by Algernon Blackwood
3) “The Second Generation” by Algernon Blackwood
4) “The Clavecin-Bruges” by George Wharton Edwards
5) “Ligeia” by Edgar Allan Poe
6) “The Sylph and the Father” by Elsa Barker
7) “A Ghost” by Lafcadio Hearn
8) “The Eyes of the Panther” by Ambrose Bierce
9) “Photographing Invisible Beings” by William T. Stead
10) “Ghosts in Solid Form” by Gambier Bolton
11) “The Phantom Armies seen in France” by Hereward Carrington
12) “The Portal of the Unknown” by Andrew Jackson Davis
13) “The Supernormal: Experiences” by St John D. Seymour
14) “Nature-spirits, or Elementals” by Nizida
15) “A Witch’s Den” by Helena Blavatsky
16) “Some Remarkable Experiences of Famous Persons” by Walter F. Prince

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212513364
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	03/21/2023
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

The improbable life story of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) included a peculiarly gothic childhood in Ireland during which he was successively abandoned by his mother, his father and his guardian; two decades in the United States, where he worked as a journalist and was sacked for marrying a former slave; and a long period in Japan, where he married a Japanese woman and wrote about Japanese society and aesthetics for a Western readership. His ghost stories, which were drawn from Japanese folklore and influenced by Buddhist beliefs, appeared in collections throughout the 1890s and 1900s. He is a much celebrated figure in Japan.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–ca. 1914) was an American journalist, short-story writer, and poet. Born in Ohio, he served in the Civil War and then settled in San Francisco. He wrote for Hearst’s Examiner, his wit and satire making him the literary dictator of the Pacific coast and strongly influencing many writers. He disappeared into war-torn Mexico in 1913.

Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. London was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush.

Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) led a rich and varied life. Storyteller, mystic, adventurer, and radio and television personality, he is best remembered for his two superlative horror stories, “The
Willows” and “The Wendigo.” But in his lifetime he wrote over 150 stories, at least a dozen novels, two plays, and quite a few children’s books as well. By the time of his death, he had become one of the greatest writers of supernatural fiction in the twentieth century.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author of short stories, poetry, and literary criticism and theory. Titled "The Master of the Macabre" he is famous for his tales of mystery and horror. He was one of the earliest masters of the short story and is widely credited as the creator of detective fiction.

John Burlinson is an American audiobook narrator.

Joseph Lewis French (1858–1936) was an author and anthologist, with a particular interest in literature dealing with the supernatural.

Amy Soakes is an Australian voice actor with over twenty years of experience both in performing and production. She has produced over eight hundred video segments and voiced over a thousand television shows, corporate videos, training programs, and commercials. An expert in utilizing accents, she has been narrating audiobooks for more than four years.

Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) was an author and anthologist, with a particular interest in literature dealing with the supernatural.