READ THROUGH THE LIBRARY
THE READING ROOM
The foundational books of the field, read in full, here. Every title on this shelf is in the public domain — the text is taken from a stated edition and the source is on each book’s page. Take a book out, read it chapter by chapter, and return it; the Library keeps the loan record.
Books still in copyright are not shown here; the Bookstore tells you who sells them. Authors who grant the Library permission will be added, one title at a time.
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
Andrew Lang
Apparitions · Dreams and visions · Second sight · Society for Psychical Research
78 CHAPTERS · 302 MIN
The Night-Side of Nature
Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Catherine Crowe
Apparitions · Haunted houses · Dreams and presentiment · Doppelgangers · Victorian testimony
43 CHAPTERS · 638 MIN
The Book of the Damned
Charles Fort
Anomalous phenomena · Falls from the sky · Unidentified objects · Scientific orthodoxy
36 CHAPTERS · 407 MIN
The Wonders of the Invisible World
Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches
Cotton Mather, Increase Mather
Salem witch trials · Demonology · Colonial New England · Spectral evidence
31 CHAPTERS · 315 MIN
Irish Wonders
The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald Isle
D. R. McAnally
Ireland · Banshee · Pooka · Leprechaun
19 CHAPTERS · 227 MIN
Byways of Ghost-Land
Elliott O'Donnell
Elementals · Phantom animals · Haunted roads · Death warnings · Edwardian ghost-hunting
13 CHAPTERS · 239 MIN
Myths of the Cherokee
Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology
James Mooney
Cherokee · Appalachia · Native American tradition · Myth and legend · Ethnography
186 CHAPTERS · 1073 MIN
Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland
Collected Entirely from Oral Sources
John Gregorson Campbell
Scotland · Highlands · Gaelic tradition · Water-horse · Fairy belief
29 CHAPTERS · 284 MIN
Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland
Tales and Traditions Collected Entirely from Oral Sources
John Gregorson Campbell
Scotland · Highlands · Second sight · Witchcraft · Death warnings
26 CHAPTERS · 276 MIN
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series
Lady Gregory
Ireland · Galway · Aran Islands · Biddy Early · Seers
26 CHAPTERS · 299 MIN
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second Series
Lady Gregory
Ireland · Galway · Banshee · Fairy belief
32 CHAPTERS · 293 MIN
Ancient legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland
With sketches of the Irish past
Lady Wilde
Ireland · Charms and cures · Holy wells · Fairy belief
52 CHAPTERS · 608 MIN
The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies
Robert Kirk
Scotland · Aberfoyle · Second sight · Fairy belief
12 CHAPTERS · 110 MIN
Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland
Thomas Crofton Croker
Ireland · Munster · Fairy legend · Banshee · Merrow
45 CHAPTERS · 313 MIN
The Celtic Twilight
W. B. Yeats
Ireland · Sligo · Visionary experience
43 CHAPTERS · 148 MIN
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
W. B. Yeats (ed.)
Ireland · Fairy legend · Changelings · Ghosts
38 CHAPTERS · 437 MIN
Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology)
Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian
W. D. Westervelt
Hawaiʻi · Ghosts · ʻAumākua · Underworld
30 CHAPTERS · 244 MIN
Real Ghost Stories
W. T. Stead
Apparitions · Haunted houses · Crisis apparitions · Premonition · Victorian testimony
20 CHAPTERS · 241 MIN