author
Walter Hubbell
1851–1932
Best known for turning a famous Nova Scotia haunting into a lasting piece of supernatural lore, this 19th-century writer moved between poetry, genealogy, and sensational true-story writing. His books preserve both a family history and one of the era’s most talked-about ghost tales.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1851 and dying in 1932, Walter Hubbell is remembered today chiefly for The Haunted House: A True Ghost Story and The Great Amherst Mystery, books that grew out of his account of the reported poltergeist disturbances in Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1878–1879. Contemporary library and catalog records also show that he wrote poetry, including Marcus Brutus and Other Verses.
Hubbell’s writing had a wide range. Alongside supernatural material, he compiled History of the Hubbell Family, a substantial genealogical work tracing the family line across centuries. That mix of interests gives his work an unusual feel: part storyteller, part recorder of family and local history.
What keeps him interesting for modern readers is the way he wrote from the borderland between reportage and mystery. Whether readers approach his Amherst book as paranormal testimony, cultural curiosity, or Victorian-era sensation, Hubbell remains closely tied to one of North America’s best-known ghost stories.