Sam Baltrusis - Ghost Writers: The Hallowed Haunts of Unforgettable Literary Icons

Doppelgnger? Author Sam Baltrusis specializes in historical haunts and has been featured on several national television shows sharing his experiences with the paranormal. Photo by Frank C. Grace.

When I was younger, my mother would drop me off at the local library so I could do some last-minute research for my history fair projects. I loved spending hours searching through the special collections and the old-school card catalogue at the universitys reference center.

It was during that time period that I became a voracious reader. I consumed at least three books a week and fell in love with the words of many of the authors featured in Ghost Writers. My first obsession was Edgar Allan Poe. I remember memorizing The Raven and then reading most of his famous works like The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of the Amontillado. In addition to loving Poe, I was a Stephen King fanatic and I strongly believe that The Shining led me into the paranormal field. Kings words continue to haunt me.

If you asked me about my favorite books back then, I probably wouldve rattled off the classics like Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn, and Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities. As my tastes matured, I became enamored with many of the female authors featured in this book, including Sylvia Plath, Shirley Jackson, and Edith Wharton. I read Whartons The Age of Innocence over and over. I was genuinely smitten with the Countess Ellen Olenska and wanted to walk the streets that she and Newland Archer visited. After several decades, my fascination with her books slowly faded.

However, when I recently visited Whartons The Mount in the Berkshires, my passion for her writing rekindled. Theres something awe-inspiring about visiting the locations where some of my favorite authors actually penned the words I devoured in high school and college. Doing the research for this book was a dream come true.

My chance to walk in the footsteps of the authors featured in Ghost Writers was a true gift. Im grateful for all of the people I met along the way, including John Zaffis, Tabitha King, J.W. Ocker, Christopher Rondina, Susan Wilson, Robert Oakes, Gare Allen, Richard Estep, Peter Muise, Jack Kenna, Thomas DAgostino, and Joseph Citro. Special thanks to Joni Mayhan for penning the books foreword and directing me to Shaman Michael Robishaw when I needed help.

Photographers Jason Baker and Frank C. Grace deserve a supernatural slap on the back for capturing the eerie aesthetic of the main haunts featured in this book. I would also like to thank Amy Lyons from Globe Pequot for her support during the process of putting Ghost Writers together.

Thanks to my mother, Deborah Hughes Dutcher, for being there when I need her most and my family and friendsincluding Andrew Warburton who traveled with me to many of the haunted locations featured in the bookfor their continued support. My high-school journalism teacher, Beverly Reinschmidt, also deserves kudos for inspiring me to keep writing.

Ghost Writers is dedicated to my stepfather, Paul Dutcher. His adventurous spirit lives on.

Each chapter of Ghost Writers begins with a quote from a featured author. If I had to choose my favorite line pulled from the pages of the book that terrified me the most, it would be Kings The Shining. Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too, King wrote. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Updated excerpts from my first eleven books, including Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends, 13 Most Haunted in Massachusetts, and Haunted Boston Harbor were featured in Ghost Writers: The Hallowed Haunts of Unforgettable Literary Icons.

Edith Whartons library at The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts. PHOTO COURTESY DEPOSIT PHOTOS .

The material in this book is drawn from published sources, including my articles in DigBoston and issues of the Berkshire Eagle, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CTNow from The Hartford Courant, Daily Free Press, The New York Times, The Observer, and North Andovers Eagle-Tribune, and television programs such as Travel Channels GhostAdventures and A Haunting and SyFys Ghost Hunters. Several books on New Englands paranormal history were used and cited throughout the text. Other New Englandbased websites and periodicals, such as Peter Muises New England Folklore, Curbed, OTIS: Odd Things Ive Seen , Where The Ghosts Live, Q1065-FMs blog as well as the websites for the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and National Park Service served as sources.

Many of the classics, such as Nathaniel Hawthornes The House of the Seven Gables, Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, and Edith Whartons The Age of Innocence, are cited throughout Ghost Writers and the works by the authors are highly recommended as supplemental reading.

I also conducted first-hand interviews, and some of the material is drawn from my own research. My former history-based tours, Wicked Salem, hosted at Wicked Good Books, Boston Haunts, and my Harvard Square Ghost Tour were also major sources and generated original content. It should be noted that ghost stories are subjective, and I have made a concerted effort to stick to the historical facts, even if it resulted in debunking an alleged encounter with the paranormal.

Andrews, Joseph L. Revolutionary Boston, Lexington, and Concord. Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2002.

Baltrusis, Sam. Ghosts of Boston: Haunts of the Hub. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012.

. Ghosts of Salem: Haunts of the Witch City. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014.

. Haunted Boston Harbor. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2016.

. 13 Most Haunted Crime Scenes Beyond Boston. Boston, MA: Sam Baltrusis, 2016.

. Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2019.

Balzano, Christopher. Haunted Objects: Stories of Ghosts on Your Shelf. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2012.

Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Cahill, Robert Ellis. Haunted Happenings. Salem, MA: Old Saltbox Publishing House, Inc., 1992.

. New Englands Ghostly Haunts. Peabody, MA: Chandler-Smith Publishing House, Inc., 1983.