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The Visitors
The Powell family has almost given up on finding an affordable New England house to rent for the summer when the agent shows them the old Twitchell place, offered at a suspiciously low price. What everyone in town – except the Powells – knows is that the place has been haunted ever since cantankerous sea captain Ebenezer Twitchell murdered his wife and mistress and hid their bodies in the cellar.
At first the ghosts aren’t too much of a problem, although the flying dishes and blood-dripping walls are a bit of a nuisance. But when old Uncle George arrives for a visit and the ghosts sink his boat, it becomes clear their intentions are murderous and that the Powells’ relaxing summer vacation has turned into a terrible nightmare....
A pitch-perfect blend of horror and humor with just the right balance of scares and laughs, The Visitors (1965) was adapted for the William Castle film The Spirit Is Willing (1967). This first-ever reprint features the original dust jacket art by Charles Addams (The Addams Family).
At first the ghosts aren’t too much of a problem, although the flying dishes and blood-dripping walls are a bit of a nuisance. But when old Uncle George arrives for a visit and the ghosts sink his boat, it becomes clear their intentions are murderous and that the Powells’ relaxing summer vacation has turned into a terrible nightmare....
A pitch-perfect blend of horror and humor with just the right balance of scares and laughs, The Visitors (1965) was adapted for the William Castle film The Spirit Is Willing (1967). This first-ever reprint features the original dust jacket art by Charles Addams (The Addams Family).
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
Nathaniel Benchley
72 books24 followersBorn in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (1889-1945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City.
Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own peoples'.
Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.
Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.
His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."
Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.
Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own peoples'.
Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.
Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.
His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."
Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 15, 2024
This was a fun, little black comedy about a family who moves into a haunted house and things begin to happen. I liked the main couple and their teenage son Stevie, the locals were fun, but bloody uncle George was sooo annoying. Written in the 60s (so be aware there are a few words people wouldn't really use in a normal conversation today), The Visitors is like a William Castle film in a book form, which funnily enough is a real thing - Castle adapted the book in 1967 as The Spirit Is Willing. I really like this new Valancourt edition and the cover art is by Charles Addams!
August 25, 2019
This is a wonderful summer read at the shore. It is faintly related to the Movie, The Spirits Are Willing, a 1960’s flick. This is more engrossing and is full of coastal characters and the out-of-towners who make the unlucky mistake of renting the local haunted house for the summer. It is out of print, but see if the inter library loan has a copy for you to read on your iPad.
October 11, 2020
This is a light and fun read. It's perhaps both more dated and less serious than some of his other books. The reason I like to come back and read him every few years is that there's a theme that keeps coming up in his books (the four I've read, anyway): there's always someone, some times a minor character, sometimes major ones, who is stuck in their place in life, and manages to walk away and start all over.
July 22, 2024
Valancourt have the knack of discovering neglected horror and mystery novels that have lain peacefully out of print for years. The majority of those that I have read, I greatly enjoy, but not so with this.
It’s a standard cosy haunted house story with very little that is special to make it stand out. It’s also remarkably low on twists and terror for a horror story, I suspect it is also a bit dated.
It might work better marketed towards a young adult audience.
It’s a standard cosy haunted house story with very little that is special to make it stand out. It’s also remarkably low on twists and terror for a horror story, I suspect it is also a bit dated.
It might work better marketed towards a young adult audience.
Want to read
April 17, 2024The Spirit is Willing (1967)
May 15, 2024
This was a very entertaining ghost story set in an old haunted house. It fun to watch the various characters get put through the paces by the three ghosts, only one of which is pure evil.
January 22, 2015
I bought this book at a library sale because it said "Benchley" on the cover. It was kind of fun to read but nothing special. Probably nobody would even publish it today. It's about a family that rents a haunted house for the summer. I liked the hard-drinking, androcentric 1960s setting. (The book was published in '65.) Don't ask me why, since there's nothing about the hard-drinking androcentric life that I particularly value.
November 15, 2010
The book that the movie "The Spirit is Willing" was based on
August 17, 2013
This book scared me. I still remember it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews