Reviews

Savannah Magazine, September/October 2004, Vol. 15 No. 6.
“Ghost Dances and Shadow Pantomimes, Eyewitness Accounts of the Supernatural from Old Georgia, Volume One, by Gordon Burns Smith and Anna Habersham Wright Smith.
An eyewitness ghost book with REAL ghost encounters! Witnesses from all walks of 19th century Georgia are as interesting as the ghosts—as they tell of extraordinary events in their everyday lives.
More than 70 ghosts and occurrences that were seen, heard and felt—as well as disembodied voices, fire scenes, lights, half-human emanations, and ‘things from the sky’—were researched in detail, and illustrated with contemporary photographs and prints.
Several stories originate from Savannah.
Boyd Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 1-890307-40-8

“Having bought your book on a recent visit to Savannah, I have not been able to put it down. It is absolutely fascinating. Just when you think there can’t be anything stranger than that which you’ve just read, yet another, even more amazing, story appears.
The collection of contemporary prints and photographs adds another dimension to the experience. How did you ever manage to assemble such a varied yet precisely appropriate set?
Thank you for providing such a great read. I feel I have now made many friends in old Georgia. Who knows—they may still be there!”

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“’As my wife and I work for the State of Georgia, we have had so much fun recognizing the old place names. You certainly did a remarkable amount of thorough and accurate research to each story, allowing the characters and circumstances to come to life in full force.
With the addition of each new angle, from multiple and varied original sources, the stories become stranger and richer, acquiring a most unexpected depth that only full mastery of the facts can produce.
We are lucky to have your joint legal and architectural talents and professionalism applied to this much abused genre. Certainly truth is stranger than fiction!”

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“Your wonderful new book has enabled me to walk the streets of Savannah with new awareness of the subtle overlapping of layers of time. I now get chills down my spine as I pass the site of the old Pavilion Hotel or Miss Jane’s house or the many other locations in the vast array of strange events described here.”

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“How refreshing to read a book on the mysterious and fascinating subject of ghosts that does not ridicule the observers or insult the facts. Your book gives dignity and validity to this inexact science and is much appreciated as an antidote to the present onslaught of ill-conceived, inaccurate, and downright frivolous accounts fabricated by the tour industry.

Those of us who take our ghosts seriously, and their study, want to thank you particularly for introducing us to a wealth of new locations, circumstances, and phenomena, which we can’t wait to explore further.”

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“I have always been intrigued by the 1872 mysterious events at Surrency, Georgia, but found the stories confusing, based mostly on highly embellished, second hand sources. Thank you so much for having the patience to sort through the contemporary accounts and build a clear time-line with eye-witness descriptions. Can’t wait to get your promised Volume Two and find out more about the death of Allen Surrency “the Ghost man” and other details thought to be lost in the mists of time.”