Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #379727 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
A painstakingly accurate collection of true ghost stories...which he writes about so knowingly. Genuinely fascinating and lovely. -- Dr. Hans Holzer

About the Author
Retired teacher of World Cultures and Religions, Pitkin taught 36 years in NY State schools. In 1974, following a major illness, he began a quest for enlightenment in parapsychology and developed an expertise in numerology. He had visited a haunted barn in 1968 and, following a study of the Riley House in Saratoga Springs, NY, became a dedicated collector of the details of hauntings. Traditional religions, he found, offer little constructive information about the souls trapped between the physical realm and the eternal, spurring him to write his successful SARATOGA COUNTY GHOSTS in 1998. Now a widely-sought after speaker, he has appeared frequently throughout the eastern United States. He had equal success as numerologist David James throughout a successful 25 year career, and wrote SPIRITUAL NUMEROLOGY: CARING FOR NUMBER ONE.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating!
I don't usually venture outside New England for my ghosts, but this bone-chilling collection was well worth every step of the journey! This is not a short read by any means. There are 380 pages of stories here, in fairly small print, and still you will wish there were more.

The author writes primarily about his regional area of New York. His writing style is inquisitive, with much information based in fact. I enjoyed his well-researched historical information about the places he visits, and the photos he includes. He then pulls it all together with contemporary stories, including eye-witnesses, credibly told and concisely written. He writes with just enough speculation to make you think, and I also enjoyed his wry sense of humor. Because there are so many well-varied stories, it becomes evident how many common threads run through ghost encounters and hauntings. You will be fascinated by what these people have witnessed!

It is tempting to read for hours once picking up this book. My advice would be to digest these stories slowly, if you can, to appreciate the full impact of each of these fascinating tales. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking substantial goose-bumps.

Plenty for Your Money!
Don't expect to read this one over the coarse of a couple of nights- or even a week! You really need to set aside time to savor each tasty morsel, chapter by chapter, tale by spooky tale, to get all the enjoyment out of this book.

Divided into categories like "Military Ghosts," "Restaurant Ghosts," "Animal Ghosts," etc, the book is peppered with actual photos of many of the haunted locales, plus eerie illustrations. Some stories are frightening enough to make the hair on your arms stand up, while others are comforting, in that they'll make you believe that there is an afterlife in which our departed loved ones are still watching over us... and occasionally making mischief!

Another great book by a talented author.

Very enjoyable
I'm an agnostic and a skeptic on the subject of ghosts, yet I found this book to be incredibly enjoyable and I was sorry to reach the end. I disagree with the other reviewer that these stories are Christian sermons in disguise. For starters, while Pitkin is obviously a "spiritual" person, he never indicates that he's a Christian. I do agree that he ends most of the stories on a heartwarming, spiritual note that I suppose could get old for some people; however, I wasn't irked by it--maybe because I took a while to read the book and therefore got it in smaller doses.

I think if you're reading a book of "true" ghost stories authored by folks who believe in ghosts (whether or not you do), you should expect to hear a bit about their spiritual beliefs as well. Are there any books of "true" ghost stories penned by absolute skeptics? I don't think so...

As for the stories, many are quite chilling, and Pitkin obviously knows his history. Most stories have accompanying photos of the houses, etc. in question, which is nice. The illustrations are mostly funny--actually, many of them are downright goofy. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more Massachusetts stories, as I live in MA. New York is well covered--I believe Pitkin lives there, and has written another book exclusively about New York ghosts.

This is one of the two best books of "true" ghost stories I've read. The other is "Haunted Happenings," by Robert Cahill.