Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) was an American writer probably best known today for her supernatural short stories, which combine “domestic realism and supernaturalism” (as Wikipedia says), generally in a New England setting. 
I shared Freeman’s excellent vampire story “Luella Miller” in my previous post, and I thought I’d share another one today. The narrator of “The School-Teacher’s Story” is a retired schoolmarm, financially comfortable, strong-minded, and perhaps not terribly maternal or domestic (it seems Freeman wasn’t terribly domestic, herself). She’s exactly the type of person that ghost stories shouldn’t happen to (so many ghost story protagonists are). And yet, there was that one student….
The story uses a motif from a common and beloved urban legend (though it does not retell that legend), and since I do call this series “writers of folklore and the fantastic,” I thought I’d share this folklore-flavored tale today.
- You can read “The School-Teacher’s Story” here.
Freeman’s collection Wind in the Rosebush is online at Project Gutenberg. I also recommend Lost Ghosts: The Complete Weird Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, edited by S.T. Joshi, from Hippocampus Press.
Enjoy!
Featured Image: Old Schoolhouse in the Flint Hills of Kansas (Tallgrass National Prairie Preserve), Laura Supalla Gilchrist (2019). Source: Flickr, some rights reserved
Here is something of possible interest to you, Nina: https://www.autocrit.com/blog/whats-the-score-interview-with-the-vampire/?inf_contact_key=6c8c7f67a9afb4eafdf0b507ca00c296680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1
Ah, Interview with The Vampire! I haven’t read it since junior high.
I’d never seen AutoCrit before. Interesting text analysis. Thanks for the link!
Great story! Thank you so much for sharing the stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman.
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed them.