More Information and How You Too Can Contact the Dead

The inside of My Tussle With the Devil

While O. Henry's Ghost might not have given readers the official answers to what happens when we die, it still provides an insight into the art of spirit writing and why this became  popular, especially with the introduction of the Ouija Board. This text remains unique because of the technology of the Ouija Board, and the fact that it was possibly written from the afterlife by one of the most famous short story writers in history. 

O. Henry is not the only famous writer to have supposedly experienced spirit writing, however, and there are plenty of other authors that can be further explored to distinguish their thoughts from O. Henry's and A.H. Pratt's. For example, Margaret Mills Harper argues that George Yeats attempted to channel her husband, W.B. Yeats, while he was still alive, through automatic writing. This led to her career as an automatic writer, where she was able to explore gender issues from a new perspective. Automatic writing is similar to spirit writing, except it usually does not require the use of a Ouija Board to make contact with someone, and it can be done with the living without any physical communication ever occuring. It usually involves the writer in a calm, meditative state, where the pen "automatically' writes for itself without much thought or energy from the writer holding the pen. Females especially are said to have an easier time with spirit and automatic writing, because women were regarded as more spiritual than men, as well as better communicators. Automatic and spirit writing allowed her to experience feminism and the different viewpoints of feminism through those that she channeled, and the radically changing positions of what she wrote confirmed her validity. Her claim is useful because it further explains how spirit/automatic writing works for this specific author and offers a new perspective on what this type of writing can be used for, rather than just channeling a late author to have him continue his works. It also is useful because it showcases an author that was well known for both her work and her husband’s work, which brings this type of writing into the mainstream, especially at the end of the Victorian period when A.H. Pratt wrote My Tussle with the Devil.

Try spirit writing yourself today!

Spirit writing was able to reach a vast audience of both readers and writers in order to answer some of the biggest questions. While George Yeats's questions focused on more social issues rather than the afterlife, they were still important topics that needed insight and attention in order to further their impact on society. There is a lack of information highlighting other works by both Albert Houghton Pratt and O. Henry's Ghost, but it is safe to say that their contribution to spirit writing is unmatched. George Yeats is just one example of another spirit/automatic writer, opening the door for so many others to build off of her experiences and make them even better. This can be seen with A.H. Pratt's attempt, which utilized a Ouija Board to further his connection with the person he wanted to channel, allowing for a deeper and truer communication for this book. 

For more information on George Yeats's automatic writing, please see:

Harper, Margaret Mills. “Nemo: George Yeats and her Automatic Script.” New Literary History, vol. 33 no. 2, 2002, pp. 291-314. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/nlh.2002.0018

For more information regarding O. Henry's writing style, please see:

Van Doren, Carl. “O. HENRY.” Texas Review,vol. 2, no. 3, 1916, pp. 248-259. JSTOR.