13 Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey
by Kathryn Tucker Windham
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Description
"Petrifying the Peach State, hosts of haints have beset the state of Georgia throughout its storied history. In Thirteen Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey, best-selling folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham, along with her trusty spectral companion Jeffrey, introduce thirteen of Georgia's most famous ghost stories. Windham won hearts across the nation in her regular radio broadcasts and many public appearances. The South's most prolific raconteur of revenants, Windham, giving new meaning to the phrase show more "ghost-writer," does more than tell ghost stories-she captures the true spirit of the place. Evoking Georgia's colonial era, "The Eternal Dinner Party" explains why the sounds of an elegant dinner soire;e still waft from the grove of Savannah's Bonaventure estate. At the onset of the Revolution, the Tattnall family abandoned Bonaventure and slipped away to England. Young Josiah Tattnall eventually returned to fight in the Revolution, restored Bonaventure, and later became Georgia's governor. One holiday eve, when the mansion was bedecked with magnolia and holly and crowded with visitors, a fire too large to control swept through the old house. Tattnall, exhibiting his cool head and impeccable manners, ordered the massive dinner table carried out to the garden where he enjoined his holiday revelers to continue their stately meal. The melancholy strains of Tattnall's dinner guests still echo through Bonaventure's ancient oaks on moonlight nights. In "The Ghost of Andersonville," Windham takes visitors near the woebegone Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. A plaque there still recounts the tale of Swiss immigrant and Confederate captain Henry Wirz. Convicted-many thought wrongly-of war crimes, Wirz's restless ghost still perambulates the highways of south Georgia. Writing for the Georgia Historical Commission, Miss Bessie Lewis quips in her preface to this beloved collection, "Who should be better able to tell of happenings long past than the ghosts of those who had a part in them?" A perennial favorite, this commemorative edition restores 13 Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey to the ghastly grandeur of its original 1973 edition. "-- "Jeffrey, the friendly ghost who lives in Kathryn Tucker Windham's home in Selma, Alabama, stirred Kathryn Windham's latent interest in the subject of ghosts, and she began a collection of authentic ghost stories from throughout the South. This book is Windham's selection of thirteen of Georgia's grandest ghosts for inclusion in this volume of true tales of the supernatural"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I could only fully read two of the stories. 'The Ghost Collie at Scataway' and 'The Curse of Barnsley Gardens'. I guess I liked the idea of the book more than the actual book. They may have been too historical and not scary enough for my taste.
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Author Information
31 Works 529 Members
Kathryn Tucker Windham was born in Selma, Alabama on June 2, 1918. After graduating from Huntingdon College, she became a police reporter for the Alabama Journal and was one of the first women to cover the police beat for a major southern newspaper. She is best known for her series of true ghost story collections. In 1974, she was the featured show more storyteller in the second National Storytelling Festival, which led to a weekly commentary on Alabama Public Radio and on NPR's All Things Considered. She was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2003. She died on June 12, 2011 at the age of 93. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- 13 Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey
- Original publication date
- 1973
- Important places
- Georgia, USA
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Kids, Tween
- DDC/MDS
- 133.109758 — Philosophy & psychology Parapsychology & occultism Specific topics in parapsychology and occultism Apparitions North America Southeastern U.S. Georgia
- LCC
- BF1472 .U6 .W563 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Psychology Occult sciences Ghosts. Apparitions. Hauntings
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 29
- Popularity
- 955,846
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
