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lydia ashbaugh the Witch
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"America's first great witch story."
--Andrew Barger
This classic American witch story of 1836 is the sorrowful tale of how Lydia Ashbaugh became a witch. Set in the mountains of Pennsylvania, its storyline and plot twists place it in high regard. “Lydia Ashbaugh” was originally published in the Saturday Evening Post and shortly thereafter in Atkinson’s Casket. It appeared the year after Nathaniel Hawthorne published "Young Goodman Brown," and excels in every category over Hawthorne's most famous witch short story. Read "Lydia Ashbaugh" tonight.
Reviews
Coming soon: B
Interview with Andrew Barger
Q: Andrew, you call "Lydia Ashbaugh" America's first great witch story. Can you give a little color as to why?
A: Sure. The only two witch short stories written in America before it are Hawthorne's "The Hollow of the Three Hills" (1830) and "Young Goodman Brown" (1835). Both pale in comparison to the scope and complexity of story that Darby brought to "Lydia Ashbaugh, the Witch" when he published it in 1836. The story also has supernatural elements, such a witch flying (sans broomstick, I might add) that are not found in Hawthorne's witch stories. To tell how a witch became a witch brought a new scope to the genre that had not been seen before.
Q: I understand Darby wrote under a pseudonym.
A: Mark Bancroft. His fiction character appears in a lot of his short stories. Bancroft is a swashbuckling adventuresome character, just like William Darby was in real life.
Interesting Witch Short Story Trivia
Who was the first female to write a witch short story in the English language?
It appears to be Elizabeth Ellet's "The Witch Caprusche." Collected in this anthology, Ellet published it in 1845, though she admitted in the short preface that the idea was not her own.
Did Edgar Allan Poe Write a Witch Story?
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) wrote scary stories in a number of supernatural genres. He did not invent the horror short story, but he took it to unbelievable heights. He was the first, however, to invent a closed room murder mystery (The Murders in the Rue Morgue of 1841) and a founding father of science fiction short stories. Poe also was the first to take us inside the head of a crazy man in "The Tell-Tale Heart" of 1843.
Yet, Edgar Allan Poe failed to cover a few crucial genres in his short stories. For instance, he did not write a vampire or monster story. I have blogged on why I believe Poe did not write a vampire story in the past. That is unfortunate as I am convinced that no one could have written a vampire story like Poe. What's more, zombie's had not been created in Poe's time. Unfortunately, Poe also did not write a witch story. He mostly liked Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Hollow of the Three Hills," which is included in my collection. I am convinced Poe would NOT have like Elizabeth Ellet's "The Witch Caprusche," primarily because he despised the author who spread rumors about him in the literary salons of the Northeast.
#WitchStories #BestWitchStories #LydiaAshbaugh #VintageWitches #WitchTales #VictorianWitchStories #PoeWitchStory
It appears to be Elizabeth Ellet's "The Witch Caprusche." Collected in this anthology, Ellet published it in 1845, though she admitted in the short preface that the idea was not her own.
Did Edgar Allan Poe Write a Witch Story?
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) wrote scary stories in a number of supernatural genres. He did not invent the horror short story, but he took it to unbelievable heights. He was the first, however, to invent a closed room murder mystery (The Murders in the Rue Morgue of 1841) and a founding father of science fiction short stories. Poe also was the first to take us inside the head of a crazy man in "The Tell-Tale Heart" of 1843.
Yet, Edgar Allan Poe failed to cover a few crucial genres in his short stories. For instance, he did not write a vampire or monster story. I have blogged on why I believe Poe did not write a vampire story in the past. That is unfortunate as I am convinced that no one could have written a vampire story like Poe. What's more, zombie's had not been created in Poe's time. Unfortunately, Poe also did not write a witch story. He mostly liked Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Hollow of the Three Hills," which is included in my collection. I am convinced Poe would NOT have like Elizabeth Ellet's "The Witch Caprusche," primarily because he despised the author who spread rumors about him in the literary salons of the Northeast.
#WitchStories #BestWitchStories #LydiaAshbaugh #VintageWitches #WitchTales #VictorianWitchStories #PoeWitchStory
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