American Ghost: A Family's Extraordinary History on the Desert Frontier - Softcover

Nordhaus, Hannah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062249207 ISBN 13: 9780062249203

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2016

Synopsis

"A haunting story about the long reach of the past."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR'S Fresh Air

"In this intriguing book, [Nordhaus] shares her journey to discover who her immigrant ancestor really was--and what strange alchemy made the idea of her linger long after she was gone." --People

La Posada--"place of rest"--was once a grand Santa Fe mansion. It belonged to Abraham and Julia Staab, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. After they died, the house became a hotel. And in the 1970s, the hotel acquired a resident ghost--a sad, dark-eyed woman in a long gown. Strange things began to happen there: vases moved, glasses flew, blankets were ripped from beds. Julia Staab died in 1896--but her ghost, they say, lives on.

In American Ghost, Julia's great-great-granddaughter, Hannah Nordhaus, traces her ancestor's transfiguration from nineteenth-century Jewish bride to modern phantom. Family diaries, photographs, and newspaper clippings take her on a riveting journey through three hundred years of German history and the American immigrant experience. With the help of historians, genealogists, family members, and ghost hunters, she weaves a masterful, moving story of fin-de-siècle Europe and pioneer life, villains and visionaries, medicine and spiritualism, imagination and truth, exploring how lives become legends, and what those legends tell us about who we are.

About this title

Review:

"Whether you believe in ghosts or are just intrigued by their persistence in popular culture, American Ghost is itself a haunting story about the long reach of the past."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

"A gripping account of frontier life from an immigrant Jewish woman's perspective. It is the author's connection of the past where she explores the story, trying to separate the history and the myth."--Working Mother

"The author's multifaceted work brings Julia back to life and explores the journey it took to rediscover her narrative. . . . Every aspect of the account is enlightening, well written, and entertaining. This touching and uplifting work is highly recommended and will appeal to a variety of readers."--Library Journal (starred review)

"A unique collision of family history, Wild West adventure, and ghost story. . . . Perceptive, witty, and engaging."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Tenaciously researched and beautifully written, American Ghost gives flesh to a lost story, exhumes a bygone world, and animates the ways in which the past haunts all of us. Hannah Nordhaus has performed a lyrical feat of dead-raising."--Benjamin Wallace, author of The Billionaire's Vinegar

"Here is a very different sort of a Western, a deeply feminine story with a strong whiff of the paranormal--Willa Cather meets Stephen King. Don't read this book late at night . . . unless you like feeling your neck hairs stand up on end!"--Hampton Sides, author of In the Kingdom of Ice and Blood and Thunder

"Hannah Nordhaus approaches the legend of her great-great-grandmother's ghost with the insight of an historian and the energy of an inspired detective. A fine tale well told. I loved every word."--Anne Hillerman, author of Spider Woman's Daughter

"Hannah Nordhaus braids personal memoir with historical research and resolute ghost hunting in a narrative that investigates the restless spirit of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab."--Boston Globe

Nordhaus's lyrical memoir ... untangles truth and legend, the tale of success and the hardships of life, the woman and the ghost."--Jewish Woman Magazine

"[A] chronicle of German-Jewish immigration to the American Southwest, a reckoning of family secrets, and an account of the author's personal ghost hunt."--Santa Fe New Mexican

From the Back Cover:

La Posada--"place of rest"--was once a grand Santa Fe mansion. It belonged to Abraham and Julia Staab, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. After they died, the house became a hotel. And in the 1970s, the hotel acquired a resident ghost--a sad, dark-eyed woman in a long gown. Strange things began to happen there: vases moved, glasses flew, blankets were ripped from beds. Julia Staab died in 1896--but her ghost, they say, lives on.

In American Ghost, Julia's great-great-granddaughter, Hannah Nordhaus, traces her ancestor's transfiguration from nineteenth-century Jewish bride to modern phantom. Family diaries, photographs, and newspaper clippings take her on a riveting journey through three hundred years of German history and the American immigrant experience. With the help of historians, genealogists, family members, and ghost hunters, she weaves a masterful, moving story of fin-de-siècle Europe and pioneer life, villains and visionaries, medicine and spiritualism, imagination and truth, exploring how lives become legends, and what those legends tell us about who we are.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0062249207
• ISBN 13: 9780062249203
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352