author
Ruth Edna Kelley
Best remembered for writing the first book-length history of Halloween, this early 20th-century librarian brought folklore, custom, and literary curiosity together in a way that still feels fresh. Her work helped turn a familiar holiday into a subject worth exploring in depth.
1 Audiobook
The Book of Hallowe'en
by Ruth Edna Kelley
About the author
Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1893, Ruth Edna Kelley was an American librarian and writer whose reputation rests mainly on The Book of Hallowe'en (1919). Published when she was still a young librarian, the book is widely noted as the first full-length history of Halloween, tracing the holiday through older seasonal traditions, folk beliefs, and changing customs.
Kelley studied at Mount Holyoke and later earned a master's degree from Radcliffe College. She spent many years working at the Lynn Public Library, where she built a long career in librarianship alongside her writing.
What makes her work stand out is its mix of research and readability. Instead of treating Halloween as a novelty, she approached it as a living piece of cultural history, and that curiosity has kept her book in print and in conversation long after its original publication.