The Vault at Pfaff's

An Archive of Art and Literature by the Bohemians of Antebellum New York

The Astor Library Visited by a Ghost [from the N. Y. Evening Post]

"The Astor Library Visited by a Ghost [from the N. Y. Evening Post]." New-York Saturday Press, March 17, 1860, 4.
Electronic Source Available
Type
newspaper
Genre
short fiction
Abstract

Recounts the details of a ghost sighting in (the historically real) Astor library by librarian Dr. Cogswell. Three times Dr. Cogswell encounters a recently deceased local physician, who in life did not frequent the library, looking at books on witchcraft, psychics, and horror, but when Dr. Cogswell speaks to the ghost, he disappears. Dr. Cogswell is sent on a vacation, though the author is sure to claim that his story is quite plausible.