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Melissa Edmundson

@melissae.bsky.social

2.4K followers 350 following 300 posts

PhD in Victorian lit. Editor/researcher/lecturer. Women’s ghost stories & the supernatural. Lots of posts about books. And ghosts. And Margery Lawrence. Violet Hunt’s The Tiger Skin and Other Tales of the Uneasy out now with The British Library.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · Nov 10

Hello to my new followers! I specialize in ghost stories by women writers, mostly from the Victorian period into the early 20th c. Expect lots of photos of old books and photos of my cat Simone. Here's a pic that combines the two. 💙📚🐈

A black cat looking at a shelf of books by women authors.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

Day 11 of #31days31books brings us Edith Wharton’s GHOSTS (1937). #spooktober 👻🎃

Front cover of Edith Wharton’s Ghosts (1937). The cover is a lovely shade of deep blue.

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

Such a good writer.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

I look forward to this conference every year! It’s an especially nice treat at the end of a semester teaching my Polar Gothic course. Highly recommend for polar fans and those who want to learn more about the polar regions. ❄️❄️❄️

Terror Camp @terrorcamp.bsky.social · 1d

📣 TERROR CAMP V PROGRAM ANNOUNCED!

Register now: www.eventbrite.com/e/terror-cam...

We’re thrilled to bring you a fantastic line-up of presentations for Terror Camp V, from deep dives into Inuit texts and polar history to queer naval fiction & scurvy. Find out what we've got in store! 🤩

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

Saturday Simone. #caturday

A black cat curled up in a Halloween-themed blanket.

Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Hellebore @helleborezine.bsky.social · 1d

British folk horror and occult characters to be on Halloween, a thread.

1. Mr Fisher from Robin Redbreast (1970).
Catchphrase: “The study of religions is one of my many interests.”
You’ll need:
- Tweed trilby
- Mutton chops
- Cracked spectacles
- A copy of The Golden Bough

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

Elizabeth Gaskell’s "The Old Nurse's Story," one of the finest Victorian ghost stories ever written, originally appeared in the Extra Christmas Number of Household Words in 1852. #BookWormSat

Black and white portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell.

Front cover to the Penguin edition of Elizabeth Gaskell’s collected Gothic Tales.

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Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

BookWormSat @bookwormsat.bsky.social · 1d

'See! Sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf.'
-Angela Carter

@signemaene.com welcomes you to #BookWormSat 's celebration of the short story! :-)

🎨Lucy Campbell

Artwork of a girl with long black hair embracing a wolf. Trees in the background. Blue, white colours.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 1d

That would make such a good series!

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Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 2d

For day 10 of #31days31books we have Norah Lofts’s Hauntings: Is There Anybody There? (1975).

Dust jacket for Norah Lofts’s Hauntings: Is There Anybody There? (1975). In the foreground is a woman in a white dress surrounded by fog fleeing from a house in the background.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 2d

For day 10 of #31days31books we have Norah Lofts’s Hauntings: Is There Anybody There? (1975).

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 3d

André Morell…the original and the best.

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 3d

Day 9 of #31days31books is Alice Perrin’s Tales That Are Told (1917).

Dust jacket for Alice Perrin’s Tales That Are Told (1917). The center image is of a woman with a snake wrapped around her.

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 4d

Day 8 of #31days31books is Dorothy Macardle's EARTH-BOUND (1924), a collection of ghost stories written while she was a prisoner in Mountjoy and Kilmainham Gaols from November 1922 to May 1923 due to her support for the Irish Republican cause.

Front cover of Dorothy Macardle's EARTH-BOUND (1924).

Title page of Dorothy Macardle's EARTH-BOUND (1924).

Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Daniel Pietersen @pietersender.bsky.social · 4d

After the sad demise of Dead Reckonings the team at @whatsleepsbeneath.com were kind enough to offer some of my older reviews a new home. I’ve just noticed that this one for the excellent Women’s Weird is now up on the site!

www.whatsleepsbeneath.com/archive/wome...

@melissae.bsky.social #weird

[Book Review] ‘Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890–1940’

Think of weird fiction and, probably without even realizing it, you will think of one thing: men. Whether it’s H. P. Lovecraft’s tentacled monstrosities, the decadent necromancies of Clark Ashton Smit...

www.whatsleepsbeneath.com

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 4d

Oh no, I didn’t know Dead Reckonings was no more. That’s a shame. But it’s great that your reviews have a new home!

Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 4d

Clotilde Graves/"Richard Dehan"'s story "The Great Beast of Kafue" (1917) tells of a perilous journey to southern Africa to find the last surviving brontosaurus. #WyrdWednesday

Color illustration by Charles R. Knight of a brontosaurus submerged in water in the foreground. Another lighter-colored brontosaurus is approaching the water in the background.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 4d

Charlotte Riddell now has a blue plaque in Carrickfergus!

Tramp Press @tramppress.bsky.social · 4d

We are delighted to see the wonderful Charlotte Riddell recognised with a blue plaque!

You can pick up our edition of A Struggle for Fame here:

tramppress.com/product/a-st...

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Charlotte Riddell: Queen of Ghost Stories honoured with blue plaque in Carrickfergus

Her more than 50 stories explored moral ambiguity and an obsession with the supernatural in the Victorian age.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Lisa Grimm Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialise @lisagrimm.com · 11d

IT’S TIME. We are back with #31DaysOfHalloween - highlighting a #spookybook (or several) every day. Kicking off with a new-to-us copy of a classic of the genre.

This House is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair, with two York Ghost Merchants ghosts

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 5d

For day 7 of #31days31books we have Gertrude Atherton’s collection of supernatural stories THE BELL IN THE FOG (1905). That blue cover. 💙

Front cover of Gertrude Atherton’s THE BELL IN THE FOG. The cover is a deep shade of blue.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 6d

Day 6 of #31days31books is Margery Lawrence’s The Terraces of Night, her second collection of supernatural stories, first published in 1932.

Dust jacket for Margery Lawrence’s The Terraces of Night. At the top of the jacket is a pistol, then a skull, then a disembodied hand.

Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

John Reppion @johnreppion.bsky.social · 10d

I have a lot of books about ghosts and hauntings on my shelves. So, as we countdown to Halloween 2025, I'm going to pick a book and a ghost/haunting from that book and post a little bluesky sized summary of that on here.
#DailyGhost

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Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Theo Paijmans @memizon.bsky.social · 7d

Added to my library: 16 parts (seven in this photo) of the spiritualist series ‘On the Borders of Two Worlds’ by feminist and paranormal spiritist Elise van Calcar (1822-1904). I have an almost complete set, but I couldn’t resist these bindings. It was published in 29 volumes, from 1877 to 1905.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 7d

An excellent collection. Some of the best Weird stories ever written, imo. Very reminiscent of MR James.

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 7d

Yes indeed. She is such a versatile and innovative writer. Also Gothic romance.

Reposted by Melissa Edmundson

Theo Paijmans @memizon.bsky.social · 7d

A shelfie of the 19th century female occult powerhouse: Anna Bonus Kingsford, Lady Caithness, Nizida, Emma Hardinge Britten and Florence Marryat. This time by daylight. Marryat also wrote the classic novel ‘The Blood of the Vampire’, published in the same year as ‘Dracula’.

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