Finally got around to finishing this. Uneven mixture of essays to be sure. My favorite essay was of course "The Beating Of Black Wings: Supernatural Horror In Literature And The Fiction Of Edgar Allan Poe" by H.P. Lovecraft with Dorothy Scarborough's "Modern Ghost" a very close second, so much so I may order the book this essay was selected from new if I can't find a copy second hand. My least enjoyable essay was "Anthropology, Fiction, And The Occult: The Case Of Carlos Castaneda" by David Murray, not because of poor writing --- Murray is a very capable wordsmith --- but because this type of anthropological mysticism just doesn't appeal to me. Castaneda's books littered virtually every crack and crevice back in the seventies when I was spending all my time and money (I was single and employed fulltime) building my book collection. Wasn't attracted to them then and after seeing two of them in good condition at Goodwill the other day felt no nostalgic tug of missed opportunity.
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