American Ghosts and Old World Wonders

American Ghosts and Old World Wonders is a posthumously published anthology of short fiction by Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1993 by Chatto & Windus Ltd. and contains a collection of nine stories, one half of which deal with American folklore and the other with older myths and fairytales. It is introduced by Susannah Clapp.

The book is divided into two parts, the first (concerned with America) consists of "Lizzie's Tiger", "John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore", "Gun for the Devil" and "The Merchant of Shadows".

Part two (concerned with Europe: the "Old World") contains "The Ghost Ships", "In Pantoland", "Ashputtle or The Mother's Ghost", "Alice in Prague or The Curious Room" and "Impressions: The Wrightsman Magdalene".

The anthology's contents are also reprinted in the volume Burning Your Boats, which features all of Carter's short fiction.

Works by Angela Carter
Novels
  • Shadow Dance
  • The Magic Toyshop
  • Several Perceptions
  • Heroes and Villains
  • Love
  • The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
  • The Passion of New Eve
  • Nights at the Circus
  • Wise Children
Short Fiction
  • Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces
  • The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
  • The Bridegroom
  • Black Venus
  • American Ghosts and Old World Wonders
  • Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories
Poetry
  • Five Quiet Shouters
  • Unicorn
Dramatic Works
  • Come Unto These Golden Sands: Four Radio Plays
  • The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera
  • The Holy Family Album
Children's Books
  • The Donkey Prince
  • Miss Z, the Dark Young Lady
  • Comic and Curious Cats
  • The Music People
  • Moonshadow
  • Sea-Cat and Dragon King
Non-Fiction
  • The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography
  • Nothing Sacred: Selected Writings
  • Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings
  • Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writing
Works as Editor
  • Wayward Girls and Wicked Women: An Anthology of Subversive Stories
  • The Virago Book of Fairy Tales
  • The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales
  • Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales
Works as Translator
  • The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
  • Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite Fairy Tales
Film Adaptations
  • The Company of Wolves
  • The Magic Toyshop

Famous quotes containing the words american, ghosts, world and/or wonders:

    There is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when we were all feeding off their gold plate; not now! At present they have not only my sympathy but my preference. They are the last representatives of our native industries.
    Edith Wharton (1862–1937)

    Or when the lawn
    Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return
    Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn,
    The sad intangible who grieve and yearn....
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    Together, we three, until the world crumbles and there is no longer a stone or a rock or a tree or a blade of grass.
    Griffin Jay, and Harold Young. Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey)

    One wonders that the tithing-men and fathers of the town are not out to see what the trees mean by their high colors and exuberance of spirits, fearing that some mischief is brewing. I do not see what the Puritans did at this season, when the maples blaze out in scarlet. They certainly could not have worshiped in groves then. Perhaps that is what they built meeting-houses and fenced them round with horse-sheds for.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)