Charleston Ghosts

...but you'll want to! I was in the fifth or sixth grade and living in Summerville, South Carolina when one of my teachers read to my class "The Wayfarer at Six-Mile House." I loved it. My family returned to Virginia a year or two later, and for the first Christmas after we left, some of our former Summerville neighbors sent us a copy of Charleston Ghosts. I now consider it my own little treasure. Some of the stories are more memorable than others, but I think the book does a beautiful job of capturing the mystique that surrounds Charleston and the Lowcountry. The fact that, as the author says, the places in the stories are, or were, REAL places just made the stories all the more captivating to me. On a recent trip to Charleston and Hilton Head, I actually tracked down the entrances (both places are closed to the public) to Medway, which I believe is now for sale, and Brick House on Edisto Island, only the ruins of which still stand. I highly recommend Charleston Ghosts!

I first read this book as a child and when my paperback copy was destroyed I purchased a new hard cover copy. I still pick this book up on occasion for a wonderful trip back in time and into a touch of the spirit world.

Written and first published almost forty years ago, Charleston Ghosts was the product of the late Martin's fervid interest in her hometown's history, particularly the tales of local hauntings and the circumstances that caused the unearthly unrest as recounted over and again by other native Charlestonians. These stories, tales of spurned love (a wealthy society girl rejects love for money and pays the consquences) and rejection (a house servant risks her heart and loses) are as colorful as the city itself.Pick up a copy of Charleston Ghosts if you are unable to visit the city yet have an interest in Southern history and "otherworldly" things. Martin's retellings of the city's more known legends are fascinating to read, from the frightening "Gray Man" of St. Philip's Episcopal Cemetery to the "Whistling Doctor" who can still be heard--a century after his death! If you do happen to be in town, take a walking tour and get the book. You just may meet a major character in one of Martin's tales.