Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – författare

Six classic ghost stories from the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction. Lightly edited for modern readers, the bones of the stories are just as she told them with no changes to plot or settings. Best of all the book includes the original unedited versions in appendices.

The Wind in the Rose Bush: As an aunt waits to see her niece strange things start happening.

The Shadows on the Wall: Three sisters mourn their brother and can’t explain what they see.

Luella Miller: The people who help a seemingly capable woman have a habit of wasting away.

The Southwest Room: Something in Great-Aunt Harriet’s old bedroom keeps scaring away renters.

The Vacant Lot: A family moves into an underpriced house only to discover the neighbors are terrifying.

The Lost Ghost: A woman tells her friend of the time she lived in a house haunted by a little girl.

A long-held grudge, a woman left at the altar, two wily sisters running away from a nursing home. These are just a few of the incidents in this captivating collection of fourteen stories, mostly about female characters. An award-winning writer, Freeman is considered one of America’s foremost regional authors.

Freeman drew accolades for her short stories—often portraits of New Englanders—and for her superb eye for detail. She captured nuances of dress, home and household furnishings, food, and gift giving. The stories in The People of Our Neighborhood are all interrelated: from “Little Margaret Snell: The Village Runaway” to “Amanda Todd: The Friend of Cats.”

Award-winning short-story writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was a gifted storyteller whose work was published in countless magazines. Young Lucretia and Other Stories collects thirteen tales, including the title story, “Seventoes’ Ghost,” and “Where the Christmas-Tree Grew,” among others.  

Young Maria Edgham’s widowed father marries Ida, a beautiful but cold-blooded schoolteacher. When Maria’s baby half-sister is lost aboard a train, Maria and friends journey from their New England village to New York City in search of the child. Her quest, taken with an interesting traveling companion, Wollaston Lee, leads her to an absurd and questionable marriage in this 1907 novel.