author
Charles Willing Beale
1845–1932
A civil engineer and hotel owner who turned to fiction, he wrote eerie and imaginative tales that blended mystery, horror, and early science fiction. His best-known books, including The Ghost of Guir House and The Secret of the Earth, still appeal to readers who enjoy strange ideas and gothic atmosphere.
2 Audiobooks
The Ghost of Guir House
by Charles Willing Beale
The Secret of the Earth
by Charles Willing Beale
About the author
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1845, Charles Willing Beale trained as a civil engineer and worked as a surveyor before trying several business ventures. He later became associated with western North Carolina, where he built and managed a resort hotel, giving his life a practical, entrepreneurial side long before he was known for fiction.
Beale is remembered today mainly for a small body of imaginative novels. The Ghost of Guir House (1897) is his best-known work, a haunted-house story with a strong gothic mood, while The Secret of the Earth (1899) ventures into speculative fiction and is often noted for its hollow-earth premise. Reference works on fantasy and science fiction continue to single him out as an early American writer in those overlapping genres.
He died in 1932. Though he never became a household name, his novels have remained of interest because they sit at an unusual crossroads: part popular adventure, part supernatural tale, and part early science fiction.