WWWs
What they're saying about MICHAEL RAMSEUR'S latest book , winner of THE FICTION AWARD at the 2009 New York BOOK FAIR ... and an Honorable Mention in the prestigious ERIC HOFFER BOOK COMPETITION:
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

From the U.S. REVIEW:

Michael Ramseur describes The Spirit of Antoinette as "a gothic horror story," but the truly frightening aspects are not the spirits which haunt the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, but the depictions of both the modern and the antiquated mental health industries. Psychiatric institutions of the 1920s and the 1980s are disturbingly similar. Though treatment methods may have changed, both are overtaxed and unable to care for those in their charge, despite their best efforts and desires.

Ramseur draws on careful research, personal experience, and perhaps his own madness. The line between fiction and history is thin here, which may be this book's most chilling quality.
the Spirit of Antoinette ...FACT or FICTION?

Michael Ramseur, Danvers Asylum artist, historian and novelist, 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
THE SPIRIT OF ANTOINETTE ... written and illustrated by MICHAEL RAMSEUR, carries a ringing endorsement from JOIHN ARCHER, the most prominent figure in Danvers Preservation

copyright 2007 by Michael Ramseur

ISBN# 0-9765975-1-9 ... Library of Congress Control Number:  2007942404

published by ARTSHIPpublishing

ready to order, or read an excerpt?...

this book is just $ 14.95 and it is a WILD RIDE... give one to every historical fiction aficionado you know!

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  or to read an excerpt from this book first, click on image below:
Above: pastel, "Antoinette", by Michael Ramseur. CLICK ON IT to be transferred to other Danvers Hospital Art by Ramseur

aaand to find out more about getting published by ARTSHIPpublishing, click here:

www.ARTSHIPpublishing.com

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”)
 

Ghosts
Michael Ramseur
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.