| What they're saying about MICHAEL RAMSEUR'S latest book , soon to be released... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| t the SPIRIT of
ANTOINETTE |
Michael Ramseur has put a face, a name, and indeed, a spirit to the countless souls who suffered and despaired within the walls of Danvers State Hospital. This is a horror story in which the horrors are tragically too real, yet woven within the tale of a young woman committed to a hilltop bedlam, are stories of compassion, care and true heroism on the part of dedicated staff and patients alike. Their stories will stay with you long after you put this book down. ––BOB BUCKLEY, THE BOSTON HERALD |
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In The Spirit of Antoinette, Michael shares a different type of vision in which we, the readers, become fellow inmates of the hospital. We experience the shock treatments, the water tables, and yes, sadly, even the lobotomies suffered by our fellow patients…. The final chapters, in which we encounter the demonic spirit of the Witch Judge, are almost beyond endurance! …Though cookie-cutter condominiums fill the spaces atop Hathorne Hill today, through Michael Ramseur’s efforts, tribute is again paid to the many souls who walked the corridors of Kirkbride’s hospital. Perhaps, they may continue to walk atop that hill today… ––JOHN ARCHER, DANVERS PRESERVATION FUND, INC. DANVERS PRESERVATION FUND, INC. |
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| the Spirit of Antoinette ...FACT or FICTION? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ramseur recounts, in The Spirit of Antoinette, how his sickened and exhausted body and mind were haunted and taken on a journey through Hell. Antoinette herself may have been conjured up as a guide — or then again, perhaps not. After all, Ramseur has researched the 19th century in these north-of-Boston areas –– its economy, culture, history, mills, immigrant workers, people, and medical and psychiatric institutions—for so long that it may now be impossible to separate real people from ghosts, fact from fantasy. ... Antoinette has served as the device for Ramseur to finally begin an exorcism. And we may never really know how much of the story is the product of his tortured imagination… indeed, if any of it is. –– ARTSHIP PUBLISHING |
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| THE SPIRIT OF ANTOINETTE ... written and illustrated by MICHAEL RAMSEUR
copyright 2007 by Michael Ramseur ISBN# 0-9765975-1-9 ... Library of Congress Control Number: 2007942404
published by ARTSHIPpublishing WATCH THIS SPACE! ... for further news about a release date for this book from Broken in Books, A Division of JLH-Booksales |
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| Above: pastel, "Antoinette", by Michael Ramseur. CLICK ON IT to be transferred to other Danvers Hospital Art by Ramseur | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In 2000, Ramseur was interviewed for the TV production “Gothic Asylums” and in 2001, showed his work in conjunction with the opening of “Session Nine”, a U.S.A. fiction-film release filmed at the Danvers hospital site. (See “DVD, Film, Sites”) |
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These images from Poe are fitting:
O from the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that 'round me roll'd In its autumn tint of gold -- From the lightning in the sky As it passed me flying by-- From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (when the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view. |
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