Casebook of Ghosts

8 Comments

Casebook of Ghosts

Back when I was a little tacker of twelve or thirteen and used to hang out in the school library—which got me labelled a ‘poofta’ by the footy guys until I started going out with the girl everyone agreed was ‘the best looking girl in school’—I would often borrow a particular book which, before I discovered girls, was better—‘the best book in the library’.

It had a particularly lurid cover featuring a malevolent green-eyed cat (later I’d remember it as a bat), and in its pages lurked stories of ghost-hunters and apparitions, severed hands and glowing eyes, floating heads and white ladies, with titles like ‘The House of the Bloody Cat’, ‘From the Cellar It Came’ and ‘The Eyeless Woman’. These grisly, ghostly tales were prefaced by atmospheric black-and-white illustrations, which like most illustrations around this time in my life, I found it easy to get completely immersed in, and which seemed to swirl with darkness, terror and the shadowy shapes that lurk at the edge of the candlelight.

They don’t write stories like those anymore. Now the stories are all horror, and vie with each other to be the most violent and repellent. The tales in this book were simple yet terrifying and seemed firmly rooted in reality—a very English reality and history, which to an Australian twelve year old was almost as mysterious and exciting as the ghosts.

Well, almost thirty years have passed since then, but for some reason the memory of this book retained its magic. Over the years I looked for it in secondhand bookshops and on the internet, but since I never knew the title, it seemed impossible to track down. I even once rang my old school library, but no book of that description existed anymore (I wonder, did it fall apart after so many years of being pored over by small boys with overactive imaginations, or did someone love it as much as I and finally take it home secretly in their schoolbag?)

Then, last week, I thought I’d try again at the source, and rang my old school with my strange request. Of course the book wasn’t there, but the librarian took down my vague description and to my surprise rang me back the next day to tell me the name of a book she had found on the library book database that might be the one. Armed with this information, it was easy to track down a picture of the cover on the internet.

Such is the power of memory that when I saw the cover a shiver went through my whole body and my eyes started with tears. Here at last was the book I had been trying to find for several decades! Immediately I ordered a near-mint first edition copy from a bookseller in Essex, England—and today it arrived.

Published in 1969, this personal classic gathers together a number of stories by Elliott O’Donnell, a noted ghost-hunter, pulp novel writer, lecturer and broadcaster who lived from 1872-1965. A quick search on the internet reveals that he wrote quite a few of books in this vein. The book comes from what seems to have been a golden age of ghost stories, the late 60s to mid 70s, just before the modern horror story took off. From my basic research it seems there were quite a few books published around that time featuring so-called ‘true’ ghost stories, either collections of local lore, or actual experiences of the writer.

Whether O’Donnell really did see the apparitions he claims he did in his Casebook is unimportant, though I like to think he did. The real magic in this book is how it brings back so vividly that twelve year old imagination, when there was no thought of questioning the veracity of the tales, only a complete acceptance that such things could and did happen out there in the wide world (and mostly in England, it seemed). A world full of echoing ancestral mansions, hidden galleries, midnight footsteps on grand staircases, frightening unseen presences, wide ancient cellars with bricked-up rooms—all those things that sent the most wonderful thrills of fear down my back.
Now, finally, I’m off to curl up on a couch with the best book in the library, to read my ghostly tales by candlelight …

8 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. Annie
    Apr 12, 2007 @ 20:49:52

    Isn’t is weird how you remembered it as a bat? I have had misremembered moments like that too and it always intrigues me.
    Other times though, you go back and it’s just as you remembered, down to the nuance.
    Your story reminds me of an article by Helen Garner about tracking down a picture book from her childhood about animals.

  2. anaglyph
    Apr 15, 2007 @ 11:05:03

    Great story Pete!

  3. Mary
    Apr 26, 2007 @ 06:51:20

    I also spent many hours in my middle school library (in Madison, Wisconsin, USA) reading Casebook of Ghosts. It was, by far, one of the best books of the genre. I certainly thought every thing he wrote was true! Modern day ghost hunters paled in comparison with O’Donnell’s stories.
    BTW–The ghost stories of M.R. James are also fantastic and similar in tone to E.O’s!
    (I stumbled on this blog because I am looking to buy my own copy of Casebook. Yes–25 years later I am still haunted by O’Donnell’s tales. Fun to see the illustrations again.)

  4. Mary
    Apr 26, 2007 @ 06:51:59

    I also spent many hours in my middle school library (in Madison, Wisconsin, USA) reading Casebook of Ghosts. It was, by far, one of the best books of the genre. I certainly thought every thing he wrote was true! Modern day ghost hunters paled in comparison with O’Donnell’s stories.
    BTW–The ghost stories of M.R. James are also fantastic and similar in tone to E.O’s!
    (I stumbled on this blog because I am looking to buy my own copy of Casebook. Yes–25 years later I am still haunted by O’Donnell’s tales. Fun to see the illustrations again.)

  5. Universal Head
    Apr 26, 2007 @ 08:42:25

    Wow, that is fantastic, and certainly a huge candidate for trucking out those tired but still true aphorisms “it’s a small world! and “isn’t the internet incredible!”
    I’ve read a few of James’ stories here and there in collections but I must read more of his work.
    How wonderful that the book had the same effect on someone else on the other side of the world.
    I got another of his collections called ‘Ghosts of Scotland’ and it has a few of the same tales in ‘Casebook’, though slightly reworked (or perhaps less reworked?). It’s nowhere near as scary though, strangely, because the illustrations that accompany the text are more ‘cartoony’. There’s just something about the illustrations in the Casebook.
    There’s a short bio of O’Donnell in it though, and a photo. Apparently … “in his heyday Elliott was a striking figure. tall, thin, white-haired and with a pince nez, addicted to cloaks and canes, he had distinguished features and an etheral air about him.”
    Good luck with your hunt for a copy. I’m going to freak you out now and reveal that mine even seems to have the same smell it had back in high school – but no, that couldn’t be possible, could it!?
    Thanks for writing!

  6. Terry
    May 02, 2007 @ 01:49:14

    Mary and All,
    Hello.
    Casebook of Ghosts is one of my all-time favorites. I am researching biographical information on Elliott O’Donnell, and if you could send me the entire biographical information you have mentioned in your post, I would be very appreciative.
    Thank you very much.
    Beast Witches Owl’ways,
    Terry

  7. Terry
    May 02, 2007 @ 01:52:56

    Hello to All,
    Mary, I accidently listed you as the writer who posted a bit about Elliott O’Donnell’s biography. I should have been addressing Universal Head. My apologies.
    On that note, I am asking all persons here who have any biographical information on Mr. O’Donnell to please send it to me. I thank One and All.
    The Beast To You Each Mourning,
    Terry

  8. Universal Head
    May 02, 2007 @ 08:30:08

    There’s an O’Donnell resurgence happening! O’Donnell fans unite!
    I’d be very interested to see your bio info when it’s done Terry – personal project? The man intrigues me too.
    I’ll copy the info here as soon as I get a moment. You should get the book though – ‘Ghosts of Scotland’.