The Ghost in the Tower: Sketches in Lost Jacobia

Earl H. Reed (1863-1931) was a Chicago area writer and artist who had a special passion for the dunes along the eastern and southern shores of Lake Michigan, authoring and illustrating several books like The Dune Country (1916), Sketches in Duneland (1918) and The Silver Arrow and Other Indian Romances of the Dune Country (1926). Reed’s two small booklets on Jacobia, the estate of his friend Henry W. Jacobs in southwestern Michigan, were published privately as Sketches in Jacobia (1919) and The Ghost in the Tower: An Episode in Jacobia (1921). The former is a short descriptive narrative while the latter is an intriguing ghost story with particular resonances to modern culture. Both rare booklets are here reprinted for the first time, and represent the only literary artifacts concerning Jacobia, a small but intriguing chapter in the history of southwestern Michigan. With an introduction by Douglas A. Anderson.