Melissa Edmundson

@melissae.bsky.social

2441 Followers 365 Following

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.

A black cat with white bib sitting next to a sign that says “Hobbs Lane.”
Dust jacket to Margery Lawrence's MASTER OF SHADOWS (1959). It shows a moon to the left, a bat, and a skull.
Dust jacket to Rosemary Timperley’s Child in the Dark: Three Haunting Novelettes (1956).
Black and white photo of Shirley Jackson.
Black and white photo of Joan Aiken.
Front cover to Weird Tales magazine from April 1939, showing a man holding a woman who has fainted.
Black and white photo of Margery Lawrence.
Painting of Christina Rossetti sitting with a book.
Black and white photo of Elizabeth Bowen.
Front cover to Louisa Baldwin's THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND (1895). It shows a woman holding a book.
Three books by Margaret Irwin. Left: Madame Fears the Dark (1935) Center: Still She Wished for Company (1924) Right: Bloodstock (1953), a blue dust jacket featuring a man in a red coat riding a white horse.
A black cat with a super curly tail looking at shelves of old books.
Dust jacket to This Mortal Coil (1947). A man’s face looks from behind the title.
Black and white photo of Elizabeth Bowen. She is sitting with her arms crossed.
Cover of New Ghost Stories showing two men to the left being frightened by a ghostly man to the right.
Black and white photo of Bithia Mary Croker.
Sepia-toned photo of Charlotte Riddell.
Painting of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, standing and wearing a black dress against a dark red background.
Black and white photo of Cynthia Asquith.
To the left is the blue and white dust jacket for Ferry Over Jordan, published by Robert Hale in 1944. To the right is the tan two volume paper edition published by the Psychic Book Club (1944).
Three books by Helen Simpson. Left: The Baseless Fabric Middle: The Woman on the Beast Right: Cups, Wands and Swords
Title page of the book Christina of Sweden.
Photo of Margaret Goldsmith.
Front cover to As High as the Sky.
Photo of people standing at a bar.
Photo of Radclyffe Hall.
Front cover of Sleeveless Errand.
Sleeveless Errand by Norah James.
Photo of Norah James.
Photo of Margery Lawrence.
Illustration from “The Lost Ghost” showing a woman to the left looking at a ghostly girl holding a coat.
Illustration for “The Vacant Lot” showing a group of scared people to the left looking at a group of hooded ghostly figures to the right.
From “The Southwest Chamber” showing a woman looking into a mirror. There is another woman’s face looking back at her.
Illustration for “The Shadows on the Wall.” Showing a man standing in profile.
Illustration for the psychic vampire story "Luella Miller.”
The front cover to Mary E. Wilkins’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903). The cover is light green with a winding rose bush pattern at the top under the title.
Dust jacket for L. Adams Beck’s The Openers of the Gate (1928). A white swan in the foreground with a snowy mountain range in the back. Shades of pink and purple.
To the left is the tan cloth cover of Broster’s A Fire of Driftwood. To the right is the blue cover of Couching at the Door.
An open book with ink writing. Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík.
A photo of Clotilde Graves.
Three books by Clotilde Graves. Left: The Eve of Pascua Middle: The Man with the Mask Right: The Third Graft
Front cover of Edith Wharton’s Ghosts (1937). The cover is a lovely shade of deep blue.
A black cat curled up in a Halloween-themed blanket.
Black and white portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell.
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.
Dust jacket for Alice Perrin’s Tales That Are Told (1917). The center image is of a woman with a snake wrapped around her.
Front cover of Dorothy Macardle's EARTH-BOUND (1924).
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.
Front cover of Gertrude Atherton’s THE BELL IN THE FOG. The cover is a deep shade of blue.
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.
Title page to Harriet Prescott Spofford’s THE AMBER GODS AND OTHER STORIES (1863). A little white ghost holds the book open.
Dust jacket of Alice Brown’s The Flying Teuton (1918) with a shadowy image of a boat on waves.
From left to right: a ghost shaped white pillow, a black bat shaped pillow, and a non-pillow black cat. All on a fluffy white blanket.
Front cover to Phantoms of the Dawn by Violet Tweedale.
The Shadowy Third by Ellen Glasgow. The book is open and to the left shows a frontispiece image of a woman and a small child. To the right is the title page.
Cover to E. Nesbit’s Grim Tales. It features a disembodied hand over the title. Both the title and hand are red against a tan background.
Dust jacket for Marjorie Bowen’s The Bishop of Hell with a bishop’s head surrounded by orange flames set against a black background.
Black and white photo of the author Violet Hunt wearing a rather large hat.
A black cat sitting with her back to the camera. To the right is a pillow with a black cat silhouetted on a white background.