Spooktober begins: "The Ghostly Hand and Other Haunting Stories"

Another October is here, which means a monthlong celebration of spooky stuff on Papergreat, and at least one more night of nail-biting over the Philadelphia Phillies' playoff fate. (Following them can be more stressful than any horror novel or film.)

Focusing on ghosts and goblins during Deireadh Fómhair, when the world is ablaze, literally and figuratively, might seem childish, but it's a nice and necessary diversion — for just a small portion of each day and for our mental health — from the corruption, crises and collapses. (Others, including Tom at Garage Sale Finds, are keeping up this October tradition, too.) 

As always, there will be a lot of old books this month and I'm kicking off, appropriately, with another Scholastic volume from the 1970s. Click on the Scholastic books label at the bottom of this post to find dozens more.

• Title: The Ghostly Hand and Other Haunting Stories
• Editor: Nora Kramer (1896-1984). This is her third curated collection to be featured on Papergreat, following Arrow Book of Spooky Stories and Arrow Book of Ghost Stories.
• Illustrator: Don Dyen, though his name is credited incorrectly as Don Dyan on the title page. It appears that he has a LinkedIn page that he's been active on this year. Prints of his illustrations of sports figures Cliff Lee and Mike Schmidt, among others, seem to be available on this website.
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services (TX 2234)
• Cover price: 60 cents
• Year: 1st printing, October 9172
• Format: Paperback
• Dedication: "For My Grandchildren"
• Contents: What I love about this book is that it collects and preserves a great deal of material from sources that might not be as ubiquitous as a Scholastic paperback. There is material from 1949's Upstate, Downstate: Folk Stories of the Middle Atlantic States; 1951's Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman; a 1966 issue of Golden Magazine; Gaelic Ghosts; 1956's The Screaming Ghost and Other Stories; and especially 1923's The Creaking Stair, among others.
• Excerpt #1: "This is a true ghost story," said my elderly Quaker friend. "It really happened to my cousin, the one my own age whom I love more than any of my other relatives."
• Excerpt #2: The woman of the house had two horses to her carriage, and Mrs. MacNair had no carriage at all. But the MacNairs had three bogles, being well supplied, and Mrs. MacNair was so set up about them that it fair put one's teeth on edge to hear her going on about them and their doings.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.33 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt: In a 2022 four-star review, Roger praised "The Open Window" by Saki: "I liked several of the stories and would have given this 3 stars, but The Open Window is one of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time, and probably the best short ghost story I’ve ever read."
• Rating on Amazon: 4.4 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review: In a 2019 review, J.M. DeMuth writes: "Rereading the stories brought back fond memories of how I loved to read when I was a kid, and in particular ghost stories. These stories are all rather tame by today's standard. But as a kid reading them on cold, dark, late October evenings I can say that they kept my interest and had me wondering what was going 'bump' in the night! Try reading some around your next campfire, or by the fireplace on some chilly autumn evening."

Here are some of Dyen's interior illustrations, plus the poem by Rosalind Welcher that opens the book...