Yankee Witches: 15 Short Stories of Horror and Humor

H. P. Lovecraft sets teeth on edge with the macabre "The Thing on the Doorstep," John Cheever presents the haunting tale "The Music Teacher," and "The Three D's" by Ogden Nash is told with sly black humor. This delightful collection includes stories to shock and horrify as well as amusing and witty tall tales. Fifteen spirited adventures await the reader, all guaranteed to entertain and spook the most avid horror fan.

Contents

7 Introduction (Yankee Witches) (1988) essay by Frank D. McSherry, Jr.
11 All Souls' (1937) novelette by Edith Wharton
37 Canavan's Back Yard [Canavan] (1958) short story by Joseph Payne Brennan
51 The Night Train to Lost Valley (1948) short story by August Derleth
69 A Message from Charity (1967) short story by William M. Lee
93 The Salem Wolf (1909) short story by Howard Pyle
109 The Fog on Pemble Green (1955) novelette by Shirley Barker
135 The Witch Sheep (1898) short story by Alice Morse Earle
145 Silence (1893) novelette by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
179 The Three D's (1948) short story by Ogden Nash
185 The Music Teacher (1959) short story by John Cheever
199 The Midnight Voyage of the Seagull (1842) novelette by Mrs. Volney E. Howard
229 Is the Devil a Gentleman? (1942) novelette by Seabury Quinn
259 The Apprentice Sorcerer (1953) short story by Stephen Arr [as by Stephen Rynas]
271 The Thing on the Doorstep [Cthulhu Mythos] (1937) novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
301 Just Another Working Mom (1988) short story by Patricia B. Cirone
313 Note on the Authors (Yankee Witches) (1988) essay by uncredited

The editors of Civil War Women present an anthology about witchcraft in New England. Surprisingly, the five tales set in the midst of 18th century "witch fever" are the least interesting, perhaps because their authors are at pains to depict the vindictiveness, hysteria and other questionable motives behind the accusations. Two masters of short fiction appear: Edith Wharton's "All Souls' " is suffused with Jamesian ambiguity about what is real and what imagined; and John Cheever's "The Music Teacher" is a chilling story of a husband who stumbles casually on a witch who helps him control his wife's passive aggression. Light-hearted pieces display the American tendency to fit even the mysterious powers of the supernatural into a familiar context: Ogden Nash's wicked work of schoolgirl cruelty, "The Three D's"; Patricia B. Circone's tale of a reluctant modern-day witch who's "Just Another Working Mom"; Alice Morse Earle's hilarious story of rural superstition, "The Witch Sheep"; and Stephen Rynas's offbeat "The Apprentice Sorcerer," about a man who uses Yankee ingenuity to defeat a wizard who claims prior rights to his witch-bride's hand.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.