I am looking for the name of a book I had as a child, it was a book of short stories, with ghost themes, nothing super scary, as I was younger than 9 or 10 when I read it. It would've been purchased in the 1970s. For some reason I thought of this book a few weeks ago, and asked my younger sister if she remembered it. She remembered the stories I mentioned, but couldn't recall the name either. The main story I remember had a ghost of a pirate (I think), and he was motionless, and had eyes like black marbles. The book had a few illustrations, and I recall there was one of this ghost (which creeped me out). Another story featured a soldier at a gate, but unfortunately that's all I remember. Just hoping someone out there might recall reading this! We already checked our parents' attic but didn't find it.
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This sounds like it might be a book that I'm looking for as well. Do you remember if there was a story about a haunted merry-go-round?– Raven13Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 21:42
3 Answers
I'm going to suggest Mary Joe Clendenin's Galloping Ghosts. Her short story, "The Caretaker", refers to a man with the following description (emphasis mine):
Dear Homer's wisps of gray hair, spread over the pillow, were smooth and carefully combed, forming a gruesome halo around the head with sunken eyes like black marbles which stared from the mummified skull. Dried thin lips were pulled back, as if the skin had shrunk in the drying process, revealing every tooth in a horrible smile. The sheet was pulled up and neatly tucked around the pajama clad body, except for one bony hand resting on the chest.
It's not a pirate, but you indicated that you were uncertain of that. I also haven't found any mention of a soldier in my Google Books search. However, it is an entry in a set of ghost stories which look to have been originally published in 1977 and it's possible that Dr. Clendenin published her stories in other books.
I remember a series of books by Ruth Manning Saunders. There was "Ghosts, Ghosts, Ghosts" and "Witches, Witches, Witches" etc.
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1And why would you think that either of these anthologies was the right one?– ValorumCommented Oct 8, 2014 at 22:34
I think this is part of the
"Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark"
set. I can't remember for certain. It isn't the first one (with Me Tie Dough-ty Walker and all that) but there was one called "More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" and it's ringing a bell pretty hard. Hope I'm right!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_Stories_to_Tell_in_the_Dark