Vernon Lee and the supernatural

It must have been around 1990 that I picked up a second hand copy of a 1976 re-edition of The Supernatural Omnibus by Montague Summers. In that volume he included two stories by Vernon Lee: Amour Dure and Oke of Okehurst. In his introduction he praised her work highly as stated his disappointment that she had given us no more ghost stories after 1890. I loved the two stories but it was many years later before I realized that Vernon Lee was still alive at the time Summers wrote his introduction.

Sometime in 2008 or 2009 I found out that Montague Summers' grave still existed in Richmond near London. In 2009 I visited his grave that had been nameless until a small stone with his name was erected in 1988. It can be seen on the page dedicated to Summers on this site. Earlier this year I visited Florence for the first time in my life and I finally had the chance to search for the grave containing the ashes of Vernon Lee. I didn't exactly know where to look but it was found quicker than expected. I haven't read any other story by Vernon Lee during the last twenty years. I guess it's about time to look for further supernatural fiction by her hand. :-)

Southampton, Bournemouth and Portsmouth

Another little little trip was completed last Monday. I visited Southampton, Bournemouth and Portsmouth. In Southampton the grave of Edward Sothern was easily found. He was the original Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin, a play performed by the cast of Laura Keene in the USA. Sothern played the part over and over again and at a certain moment he even bought the copyrights. In Bournemouth Mary Shelley's tomb was the main attraction. Just within a year I collected Byron, Shelley and Mary! In Portsmouth Charles Dickens was born and the grave of mistress Ellen Ternan was shown us by a kind gentleman at the cemetery who was to host a Dickens grave walk later that afternoon.

There was even time to travel to Minstead, not far from Southampton in New Forest. There, at the quiet All Saints' Churchyard the simple grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is located. His remains were transferred there in 1955 and he was buried in a corner of the cemetery since he was a spiritualist, not a Christian. Naturally, all these tombs will appear on the site over time.

A little bit longer in... New York City

Yesterday I returned from New York City. This in itself is not so special, but I should have returned eight days ago. Those damn volcanic ashes! However, I'll spare you the details since you can hear stories about stranded travellers anywhere now. ;-)
More important is that I managed to look up some interesting graves in the New York areas, among them the legendary actor and playwright Dion Boucicault, author Carson MacCullers (whose "The Member of the Wedding" impressed me much when I was young), singer Geraldine Farrar and, in Philadelphia, scientist/statesman Benjamin Franklin.
After processing the pictures these and more will appear on the site. But things might go slowly, catching up on work must have first priority now!