Recently I’ve been thinking about internet searching—how some information is difficult to find. This book provides an example. I saw what we in the biz call a “new book announcement” (NBA for bookish sorts). Since I’ve been reading about the Hudson Valley the subtitle of Ghosts in Residence (Stories from Haunted Hudson Valley) caught my eye. I assumed it was a new book and eagerly awaited its release. When it arrived I discovered that it was a “new in paperback” (NiP) edition of a book published in 1986. This edition, published this year, didn’t update things, including author information. Given that H. A. von Behr was born in 1902, I doubt he’s still alive, but the book simply borrows the LCCP (Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication) data from 1986, showing the author’s dates as 1902– . Perhaps unintentionally appropriate for a book about ghosts.
This is an odd book, all around. Although published in 1986, much of it deals with even earlier times—the author’s recollections of the forties—as well as some more recent events. Hans von Behr cuts the image of a country gentleman while his neighbors in the Valley go on fox hunts and he has what seem like daily cocktail parties on the lawn. He dashes off an article about his favorite dog and gets a healthy check from Outdoor Life. This is a different world. But then there are the ghosts. But more than that, also strange happenings. The ghost tales are intriguing, and some of the other strange events head-scratching. The whole has a quasi-autobiographical aspect to it, but while not revealing too much. A couple chapters deal with hauntings in Germany.
My web searching for H. A. von Behr revealed very little. He was a retired scientist and photographer (he had some high profile clients) and the book contains many of his photographs of the locations discussed. This short book explains how he came to purchase a haunted farmhouse upstate for a second home (again, a different world), how he discovered it was haunted, and how many of his friends and acquaintances revealed, over time, that their houses also had ghosts. The book is charming in its own way, and a quick read. Still, it’s a little disorienting when you can’t find more information about someone online. The options are to do library research (my favorite kind) but am I really that curious about this author? I wanted to read about the ghosts, and that I did. And many other incidental things besides.
