Scholarly Books on Ghost stories

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Hey EN Worlders!

Whenever I get a chance, I attempt to make my schoolwork slightly more tolerable, especially when it comes to essays. For my history classes, I usually wind up doing a paper on something that appeals to my geeky side. Last semester I did a paper on Nazi Occultism, and this semester, I'm sticking with the supernatural theme and doing a paper on the function ghost stories serve in the process of cultural memory. (Basically, "Why does a culture need ghost stories?")

I'm looking for suggestions of places to look for ghost stories--the more "local legendy" type the better, because I'm really not looking for works of fiction. Why post this here in the RPG forum? Because local legend-ish ghost stories make great jumping off points for horror/adventure games, that's why! (And well, it *is* probably the most visited forum )

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated, and if you have any suggestions of ways to use the stories in a game, post them as well!

 

[Clueless]

North Carolina is rife with ghost stories, a good number of them you've probably already heard: http://www.secstate.state.nc.us/kidspg/legends.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Tramping-Carolina-Mystery-Stories/dp/1419128191
http://www.amazon.com/Tar-Heel-Ghosts-John-Harden/dp/0807806609/

For smaller localities, you may want to check into some of the paranormal research groups out there, like this one in Virginia: http://virginiaghosts.com/ or the Rhine Research Center that came out of the Duke University Parapsychology Research department (back when they still had it): http://www.rhine.org/

There's bound to be someone in your state running an organization like this that can give you more localized information as well.

 

[Wystan]

look for Wierd New Jersey and its magazine ilk...

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

You folks are tres awesome. I knew EN World wouldn't let me down. Keep suggestions coming.

 

[Contrarian]

Project Gutenberg has the text of Charles Skinner's Myths and Legends of Our Own Land -- a collection of American ghost stories, "Indian legends", and monster tales collected in the late 19th century:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6615

For academic work, it's a good way to get some perspective on older forms of the legends. For gaming, it's awesome, because you've got a gigantic amount of period text that you can alter and print for game props. With the right editing, you could use it for anything from Tobin's Spirit Guide to a Mythos tome.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Great resources, thanks folks.

*bump*

 

[jaerdaph]

Project Gutenberg has the text of Charles Skinner's Myths and Legends of Our Own Land -- a collection of American ghost stories, "Indian legends", and monster tales collected in the late 19th century:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6615

For academic work, it's a good way to get some perspective on older forms of the legends. For gaming, it's awesome, because you've got a gigantic amount of period text that you can alter and print for game props. With the right editing, you could use it for anything from Tobin's Spirit Guide to a Mythos tome.

This is awesome - thanks for the link!

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

One more bump to see if I've missed anyone's expertise.

 

[Jesus_marley]

If you are looking for ghost stories, look to the coastal areas, especially the east coast of North America. I am not familiar with most American folklore, but Eastern Canada, namely Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland is rife with local ghost stories.