The Book of Halloween

Halloween was once a day of mischief, oracles, ghost stories and fires: author R.E. Kelly tells the history of Halloween from the perspective of the early 1900s United States. Ruth Edna Kelley (1893-1982) was an American librarian and author. She is remembered for The Book of Hallowe’en (1919), the first book-length history of the holiday. Kelley was born in Massachusetts, the only child of Charles F. Kelley, a carpenter, and his wife Mary. She grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and received a master of arts degree. This work contains historical materials that are products of their particular times, and may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes.