A HISTORY OF GHOSTS

Peter Aykroyd with Angela Narth

Foreword by Dan Aykroyd
Release date: September 29th, 2009
ISBN: 9781605298757
$32.99 Hardcover
264 pages
Non-Fiction / History
Published by Rodale
Distributed in Canada by H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

A HISTORY OF GHOSTS
Peter Aykroyd spent his childhood watching his family's parlor séances through the crack of a
basement door. Here, for the first time, Aykroyd tells the strange and delightful story that
inspired his son, Dan, to make the mega-hit movie, Ghostbusters. Part history, part family legend,
A History of Ghosts starts in 1848 in upstate New York, where the spiritualist craze first began.
Aykroyd introduces the reader to notable mediums while telling the story of the development of
spiritualism, interweaving a personal history marked by a fascination with ghosts and spirits with
the larger narrative about the role the paranormal has played in our culture. Such legendary
figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini appear and vanish. Everyone loves a good
ghost story. Successful TV shows such as Medium and Ghost Hunters are proof that our national
obsession with ghosts is here to stay. Millions of Canadians believe in the paranormal—and even
skeptics have heard a bump in the night and suspected it might be something supernatural…

About the Authors:

Peter Aykroyd is a retired Government of Canada Senior

Executive. He is the author of two previous books the
Anniversary Compulsion and A Sense of Place. He lives
on a plot of land 20 miles north of Kingston, Ontario,
that has been in the family for 180 years.

Angela Narth is a full-time writer of both fiction and

non-fiction with seven books currently in print. She lives
on the banks of the might Red River a few minutes
south of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dan Aykroyd, is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Canadian-American comedian,

actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night
Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters, and has had a long career as a film actor and
screenwriter.

A History of Ghosts is a must–read for anyone who's ever

wondered what happens to us after we pass, or heard a bump in
the night and suspected it might be something supernatural.