The mid-1800s to the early 1900s was a high point for literary ghost stories. A sub-genre of this writing is ghost hunter fiction, in which a character not personally haunted investigates a house, a room, or some other site reported to be visited by a ghost. Sometimes, a doubtful ghost hunter hopes to debunk those rumors. Other times, a hopeful hunter wants to confirm that the dead really do return in spirit form.

No matter the motivation, ghost hunters never know what they’ll discover. Skeptics are converted while believers confront a supernatural entity that’s far worse than a mere ghost. And some ghost hunters don’t survive their encounter with the otherworld!

This collection of ghost hunter fiction—28 short stories and novellas from the 1820s to the 1920s—includes such renowned authors as Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Henry James, Charlotte Riddell, Ambrose Bierce, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Algernon Blackwood, Rudyard Kipling, Sax Rohmer, and H.P. Lovecraft. With an enlightening introduction and helpful footnotes provided by supernatural fiction scholar Tim Prasil, this book is a first-of-its-kind source for this distinctive branch of ghost fiction and will be a treasured addition to any ghost-story library.