Ghost Stories
Why ghost stories?
Ghosts stories at their core are about our relationships with history, place, and memory. The clear structure of the best stories draws me, and as an architect I am also fascinated by the memorable places that become charged with meaning - past, present, and future.
These stories also have root in a long oral tradition, and since my earliest memories, my grandmother and father have told and read ghost stories. When I left for college in 1990, I decided to begin recording stories for my father, Dave Hampton, Sr., and have made it a tradition to record new tales every few years with original music.
Go to a sampling of recordings.
Authors
Authors from near and far over the last five centuries (at least in the West) have tried their hand at a ghost story, either directly or obliquely, and some authors will be featured here in the near future - stay tuned.
M.R. James (1862-1936)
This nonbeliever became the foremost practitioner of the modern ghost story. A biblical scholar and expert on the Apocryphal books, James ascended to the post of Provost at Eton College.
James’ stories are characterized by the establishing of a carefully constructed mood through highly evocative and memorable descriptions of idyllic British landscapes, into which contrasting events of a vengeful, malevolent nature subtly intrude.
Links: stephengray.net, Ghosts and Scholars, Ash-Tree Press
Recordings: The Ghost Stories of M.R. James, Vol. I and Vol. II
Robert Aickman (1914-1981)
Literary critic, editor, and co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association, Aickman preferred to call his disquieting creations “strange stories.”
Aickman’s writing flows seamlessly from the mundane world of the everyday to dream-states, and back again. Often refusing to give neat and tidy endings to his stories, this lack of resolution fosters a growing sense of uneasiness at the possibility of the sinister. Are repeat phone calls with no one at the other end of the line a jilted lover or something else? What is the mystery behind an unnaturally quiet hostel along a dark English road?
Links: aickman.com, Robert Aickman - An Appreciation, The Works of Robert Aickman
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
More to come…
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)
More to come…
Walter de la Mare (1873-1953)
More to come…
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
More to come…