~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from Memoir of Reverend David Tappan Stoddard.

“But are we still confident there is, in the language of a modern philosopher, a ‘ghost in the machine’?” —George F. Will

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from An Autobiography by Hugh Miller.

“It was very dark, and the stone was only a ghostly blur.” —John Buchan, Witch Wood

"There's nothing so enchanting as a glimpse of the innumerable mysteries that surround us."
—Vítězslav Nezval, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

An illustration from a 1920 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "Which road, Ouija?"  See The Care & Feeding of a Spirit Board.

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from The Life of John Milton.

“Enter the ghost in the machine.” —Igor Aleksander, Impossible Minds

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from A Memoir of Mrs. Susanna Rowson.

“The wraith of her face faded altogether.” —J. R. Cain

Here's a precursor to "love me, love my dog."  An illustration from a 1918 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "Would you consider marrying me—and making a home for my dog?"

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from The Life of Samuel Johnson.

“It was hard to make him out in the poorly reproduced photocopy.” —Robert Harris, The Ghost

"If you must pray, then pray to your invisible self; it is the only god that answers your prayers, other gods give you stones instead of bread.  Unhappy are they who pray to an idol and their prayers are heard: they lose their own selves, since they are no longer capable of believing that it was they themselves that answered their prayers."
—Gustav Meyrink, The Green Face

"come to me, come to me."
—Jean Ray, Malpertuis [emphasis ours, if we may be so bold]

Bells, bells, they swing and sway, they wag and weave through their whole arc on their beams, in their seats, hundred-voiced, in Babylonish confusion.  Slow and swift, blaring and booming—there is neither measure nor harmony, they talk all at once and all together, they break in even on themselves; on clang the clappers and leave no time for the excited metal to din itself out, for like a pendulum they are already back at the other edge, droning into its own droning; so that when echo still resounds: "In te Domine speravi" [In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped], it is uttering already "Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata" [Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven] into its own midst.  —Thomas Mann, The Holy Sinner [emphasis ours]

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from The Life of Thomas Jefferson.

“His amorphous face full of amorphous thought.” —Austin McGiffert Wright

An illustration of a spirit double from an 1889 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly magazine.  The caption reads: "It seemed almost like a luminous mist floating in through the window—and out of that mist slowly grew my own face and form."

Dedicated to Clint Marsh.

"My pen, animated in part by itself and animated in part by all the rest, flies into the lambent paper sky.  My pen is a wing and every word, borne by it and by its shadow on the paper, rushes towards either catastrophe or apotheosis."
—Robert Desnos, Liberty or Love!

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from Samuel Daniel.

“His pale face visible as only a white smudge.” —Peter Straub, Ghost Story

"When I was a little girl I thought chickens were the souls of dead actresses."
—Leonora Carrington, The Stone Door

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from Memoir of Josiah White.

“He felt himself transparent, insignificant, a shade of his former self.” —Dorothy West