‘Tis the time for ghosts and goblins. A new book has appeared in the ghosts genre from an unlikely source on an unlikely subject.
Alena Pirok, assistant professor of history at Georgia Southern University, has written “The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated Past” (University of Massachusetts Press, 232 pgs., $30.95).
Don’t let the academic atmosphere put you off. It was done for a reason. “I’m a tenure-track professor, and the academic press was chosen because it fulfills a requirement of academic focus,” she said.
“However, hopefully I’ve fashioned a book that can be enjoyed by all.”
I couldn’t agree more. Pirok has examined an interesting aspect of the nearly 100-year history of Colonial Williamsburg and has woven a very readable narrative that adds an element to previously unrecognized early history of the institution.
Her research has been significant. One only has to look at the nearly 600 end notes for the book’s seven chapters to see what kind of research Pirok undertook. From 2013 to 2019 she spent parts of every summer in the city doing research — looking at old letters and diaries in archives and interviewing all types of people from historians to shop keepers.
On any given night during the tourist season, there are numerous separate “ghost tours slinking their way through Colonial Williamsburg’s darkened streets,” she writes. They are about the same old residents and tell the same stories. “Far from being tired tales or frightening rumors, these stories are told time and again because they offer guests a valuable pathway to connect with the past through its people.”
Granted, the ghosts tours are money-makers for various companies, but, as Pirok stresses, they also have long been part of the area’s past.
Pirok has taken the world of ghost lore and has told part of the story of the creation of Colonial Williamsburg.
Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin and his restoration ideas, along with John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s money, led to the creation of Colonial Williamsburg. And don’t be surprised that Goodwin used ghost stories to enliven the historical narrative of Williamsburg.
“Goodwin’s religious background suggested that when he said ‘spirit’ or ‘ghosts,’ he was speaking literally,” Pirok said. “Restored homes would be ‘lures,'” as he put it, “for revolutionary-era ‘ghosts.'” This story is somewhat like a mystery; you don’t want to give too much of it away.
Part of her research is “thinking and asking questions about ghosts and how people react to ghosts,” Pirok said in a phone interview.
“The key to making all of his happen was L.B. Taylor’s ghost books and his stories of ghosts in Williamsburg. His work was absolutely vital to what I was able to use in my book,” she said.
It is simply impossible these days to mention ghosts in Williamsburg or ghosts in Virginia without either speaking about Taylor or reading his many, many ghost stories.
After a career as public information officer for NASA, magazine editor for Rockwell International and public affairs director for Dow-Badische (later BASF), he enjoyed his retirement years in the business of selling ghost stories.
Ultimately, he wrote 25 ghost books – beginning in 1983 with “The Ghosts of Williamsburg … and Nearby Environs” (L.B. Taylor Jr., 84 pgs, $6). We were writing colleagues and good friends, and he told me that he became interested in ghosts after he was contracted, as a freelance writer, by Simon and Shuster to write “Haunted Houses.”
That small volume contained 14 separate stories of houses throughout the country with the introductory store set in Williamsburg at the Peyton Randolph House on Market Square Green.
Through the years, he probably wrote nearly 1,000 stories about locales across Virginia, including a second book on Williamsburg Ghosts and “The Ghosts of Tidewater … and nearby environs,” first published in 1993. Taylor self-published all his ghost books at a time when self-publishing was not in vogue.
Taylor told me he didn’t want to mess with dealing with national publishers who would want to change his concept, “especially at a time when my ghost books are selling so well.”
So light a pumpkin in the next couple of weeks and enjoy some ghost stories. Pirok and Taylor provide you a vast array of opportunities.
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The Mosquito Bowl of World War II
It’s hard to conceive of a World War II book that combines athletics and the military, but Buzz Bissinger has done it with “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II” (Harper, 480 pgs., $32.50).
Known for his classic best-seller, “Friday Night Lights,” published three decades ago about a Texas high school football team, Bissinger has produced a volume full of amazing research as well as amazing stories.
I must agree with Associated Press reviewer Douglass K. Daniel who wrote that the book’s one “misstep” (probably not the fault of the author) was the fact that the football game — the “bowl” — only “takes up less than a page and doesn’t justify the catchy title.” One would expect more than a few cursory words about the game, but that said, forget the title and read the book!
Bissinger uses the football contest as the frame upon which he stretched his canvass of the Pacific war. The game, between the 4th and 29th Marine Regiments of the 6th Marine Division that were training for future combat, took place several months before those units found themselves fighting the Japanese in the 82-day Battle of Okinawa.
He explained that the football game and subsequent battle — probably the bloodiest contest in the war — included in the ranks maybe the greatest pool of raw athletic talent ever assembled in military conflict. There were former collegiate All-Americans and men who would later play in the National Football League.
Bissinger’s amazing and relentless storytelling involves a number of individuals who played in the game and fought on Okinawa and how their fellow Marines fared before and after.
He notes that 65 men from the two outfits “suited up” for the game situated on a parade field of dust, pebbles and shards of coral. Ultimately 15 of the participants died on Okinawa.
This is a World War II story unlike anything you’ve ever read. It’s an unforgettable saga and one that military history and American history buffs should not overlook.
Have a comment or suggestion for Kale? Contact him at Kaleonbooks95@gmail.com
