The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
1992

Four hundred entries arranged A-to-Z flesh out our beliefs about all that haunts.

This encyclopedia is about as fair as one can expect about a subject that many people think doesn't exist. The author (Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience , LJ 8/91) has tried to read much of the skeptical literature and at least to report what it says. Yes, the believers get much more coverage, but there is an attempt to present both sides. The accuracy of the book is also fairly high. A number of errors do occur, which, surprisingly, seem not to have been copied from other sources but to have resulted from misremembering. These small errors do not significantly affect the utility of the book. A useful addition to the reference collection of any academic or public library. – Gordon Stein, Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston