Pros: Smith has a clear writing style that is easy to keep interest
Cons: Provides little new insight or facts on the cases covered
The Bottom Line: This book is a good introduction to California ghost folklore, but it is more focused on entertainment than in-depth research or scientific investigation.
adriennefoster's Full Review: Barbara Smith - Ghost Stories of California
In a state where a house is considered old if it's been around for more than 25 years, people don't normally associate California with ghosts. However, between earthquakes, the Spanish-American War and the Barbary Coast—not to mention the Native Americans who were pushed around—its past violence and trauma has reaped its own crop of ghosts. Ghost Stories of California is a collection of the Golden State's ghost folklore told in a classic style.
Author Barbara Smith has organized this collection of eerie tales by the milieu each ghost haunts. The ghosts she writes about can be found in homes, public places, "ghost towns," inns, the Pacific Ocean, theaters, and as links to frontier history. The depth of the accounts provides little new insight or facts, but they do give a good shiver for those looking for something spooky.
Any book on California ghost folklore would be incomplete without reports on the Winchester House, Whaley House, Queen Mary, and Hotel del Coronado, and Smith faithfully supplies those tales for those new to subject. What makes this volume interesting is the lesser-known stories from around the state.
In a haunted transfer station, a murdered attendant still goes out to the livery to care for the horses. The permanently-docked USS Hornet has apparitions of sailors who disappear as they walk around on board. The most malevolent entities can be found at Alcatraz. John Wayne is still sensed and seen aboard his beloved yacht, The Wild Goose, despite selling it shortly before he died of cancer in 1979. (That's one thing about death, you don't have to worry about niceties.) Smith also includes a substantial chapter on the Hotel Roosevelt, which claims to house several celebrity ghosts including Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. (Despite common belief, one of my resources indicates the Monroe sightings are not Monroe and never were.)
Of course, this 2000 book just touches the surface of California hauntings. A few that are missing that I have yet to find documentation on are a couple of hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area and the phantom seen along San Jose's Alum Rock Road. Some of the better-known legends that are also absent include the Moss Beach Distillery, San Francisco Art Institute, and Disneyland. Efforts to make a book that comprehensive would take ages to research and those who want to read the stories would never see them in print.
Anyone who wants to become better acquainted with ghost folklore of the Golden State should really enjoy Ghost Stories of California. The stories it covers are fascinating whether or not the reader lives nearby, but look to other sources if in-depth background or scientific research is desired.
__________________ Originally posted at Amazon.com on November 1, 2000. Minor editing done for Epinions.
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