Olivia Howard Dunbar (1873–1953) was an American short story writer, journalist and biographer, best known today for her ghost fiction.

Life

Dunbar was born in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts in 1873. She graduated from Smith College, after which she worked in newspaper journalism. She worked for

The New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

during which time she penned an exposé on

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning se ...

and Christian Science. As a short story writer and critic, she was published in many of the popular periodicals of her time, including '' Harper's'' and ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

''. Dunbar wrote several

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

, as well as a 1905 essay, "The Decay of the Ghost in Fiction", defending the subgenre. Dunbar was active in the

women's suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

, and her work has been noted to contain feminist themes. She married the poet Ridgely Torrence in 1914. Dunbar died in 1953. Her work has been anthologized by

Dorothy Scarborough Emily Dorothy Scarborough (January 27, 1878 – November 7, 1935) was an American writer who wrote about Texas, folk culture, cotton farming, ghost stories and women's life in the Southwest. Early life Scarborough was born in Mount Carmel, Te ...

and

Jessica Amanda Salmonson Jessica Amanda Salmonson (born January 6, 1950 John Clute and John Grant,Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, in ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', pp. 832–833, Orbit, London / St Martin’s Press, New York (1997).) is an American author and editor of fan ...

.Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, ''Scare tactics : supernatural fiction by American women''.New York : Fordham University Press, 2008. (p. 106).

Selected works

Short fiction

* ''The Shell of Sense (1908)'' * ''The Long Chamber (1914'')

Novels

* ''A House in Chicago (1947)''

References

External links