A wry look at the stranger habits of early Puritan society, from extravagant virtue-themed names to the strict punishments and “Blue Laws” that governed colonial life. This excerpt, compiled by C. C. Bombaugh, captures the earnestness and eccentricity of a culture striving to legislate morality down to the last detail.

This text is a richly detailed catalog of traditional Cornish feast days, seasonal rituals, local fairs, and community customs, capturing how the region marked the year through celebration, superstition, and shared practice. It offers a vivid glimpse into Cornwall’s cultural life, part domestic tradition, part communal festivity, and entirely rooted in the rhythms of everyday people.

The opening part of Geronimo’s Story of His Life moves from an Apache creation story to memories of homeland, tribal divisions, games, medicine, and family, Geronimo’s own account of who his people were before war and conquest. Told late in life from Fort Sill, these chapters sit at the crossroads of myth, cultural history, and memoir.

Modern Ghosts explores how specters have adapted to the styles and anxieties of modern fiction, shifting from the sprawling Gothic novel to the sharper, more psychological short story, and expanding their powers from pallid wraiths to vivid, corporeal, and even humorous presences. No longer bound to castles or midnight hours, these ghosts haunt trains, bedrooms, and everyday lives, reminding us that while mortals fade, the ghost never goes out of fashion.