This copy resided in the Central High School Library in Manchester, Tennessee, for many years and was checked out often. It features ghost stories from around the world, as retold by the author. In the introduction, Reynolds explains that he has chosen 19 tales from England, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Saxony, India, Norway, Hungary and the United States. "The appearances and manifestations of ghosts are as varied as the lives they lead while alive," Reynolds writes. "Choosing carefully from every phase of phenomena, I have selected that stories that seem to me to vibrate with action, color, and design, as does a cloak of motley. That classic ghost story is infinite in variety."
The nod to color and design is relevant, and Patterson was more than an author and illustrator. He worked as a set designer for Broadway productions in the early 20th century and also worked in costume design.
He got Lon Chaney Jr. (1906-1973) to pen the book's introduction. In it, Chaney discusses how he, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi worked to translate now-iconic monsters from the page to the movie screen. And he writes of his regret (as of 1949, anyway) that he hadn't had an opportunity to portray a ghost on film. "This book, unfolding the background and history, the motivation, the setting and the character of the ghost, is a complete guide for the actor," Chaney writes. "If one cannot see the real ghost, then reading the true ghost stories of James Reynolds is the next best thing."
In a 1949 review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Helena Lefroy Caperton gushed:
"A reviewer of books learns the technique of skimming through a volume, getting the gist of the subject, but only enough of it to do honest justice to the author. In 'A Gallery of Ghosts,' by James Reynolds, this is wholly impossible, for one becomes more deeply absorbed at the turn of every page. Although it is often difficult to read continuously through a volume of short stories because the attention is apt to wander concentration to fail, this is impossible in this amazing and beautiful book because of its glowing, masterly writing, its hair-raising subjects, the fine sketches by the author, and even the admirable format of the book itself."
Review Norma C. Howard, writing for the Independent Tribune of Concord, North Carolina, was somewhat less effusive when reviewing the Grosset & Dunlap edition published in 1965:
"The stories delve deeply into the lore of the many countries from which they are taken, but fail to produce the promised spine-tingling and goose-pimples promised on the dust jacket. In fact, I believe they may be safely read alone at night without fear of disturbing one's sleep. ... James Reynolds was an art-illustrator before turning writer ... and has done a very commendable job of illustrating 'Gallery of Ghosts.' It is one of the most attractive books I've seen in quite a long time and makes me wonder if he should not have stayed with his first love after all."
I have to wonder if what readers found spooky changed enough 1949 and 1965 to account for part of the difference between Caperton's praise and Howard's shrug of the shoulders. Films certainly made a transition to more graphic and visceral scares during the 1960s. Was it the same for books? Were mere ghosts entering a down cycle compared to knife-wielding psychos and satanists?
Here are some of Reynolds' illustrations from the book, which I think have certainly retained their uncanny spookiness over the decades:
