Sometimes a long book to get lost in is exactly what is needed. And sometimes a short story or a hair-raising poem is all you need to get in to the Halloween mood.
Dennison’s Bogie Book
Dennison’s made annual holiday books with recipes, games, party ideas and even stories. This one from 1920 is available for download for free. More.
Killer Verse
Poems of Murder and Mayhem
Everyman’s Library has a wonderful series of poem collections. This one is edited by Harold Schecter (who wrote The Devil’s Gentleman) and poet Kurt Brown. The work includes poems by Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, W. H. Auden, Stevie Smith, Mark Doty, Frank Bidart, Toi Derricotte, Lynn Emanuel, and Cornelius Eady. More.
Poems Bewitched and Haunted
A delightfully ghoulish array of specters and sorceresses, witches and ghosts, hags and apparitions haunt these pages–a literary parade of phantoms and shades to add to the revelry of All Hallow’s Eve. More.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other tales
Washington Irving
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales collects the best macabre stories of Washington Irving. Blending sly humor with supernatural thrills, these tales are among the most beloved of all American fiction. More.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The long poem is a story told by an old sailor who is survived a haunted ship. Having survived the ordeal, he is doomed to tell his story to everyone and warn them to not repeat his mistakes. More.
The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In the title story, a young woman is confined to her room by her husband for the sake of her health. With nothing to distract her apart from the patterns of the wallpaper itself, she slowly spirals into insanity. More.
Do you have a favorite Halloween story or poem?