h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Ghostwriters at Work: Patience Worth, Mark Twain, and Ouija Board Novels - A87837736
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

Have you ever written a poem with one of those fridge-magnet sets?

Did you feel an unseen hand guiding you from The Great Beyond? Perhaps the spirit of WB Yeats...?

This is a brief introduction to the history of Ouija board-composed novels.

This is very good, Dmitri. There's only one thing I think it needs. You quote some guy who says that a little heart-shaped piece of wood on wheels is known as a ouija board. It's worth footnoting that he is in fact describing the planchette and that the board is the part with the letters on which the planchette sits.

That's an excellent thought. Thanks, I'll do that!

This is a great article. Though I'm seceptical.

Although you say in the second paragraph that novels/poems composed with the help of a ouija board have won literary prizes, you didn't say which ones. It might not be relevant to your article but I'm intrigued.

I can just about imagine using them for poetry, because it might introduce a random element - words that the poet wouldn't have thought of consciously.

I think your assessment of the board's possible value to poetry is spot on, MVP.

James Merrill won the National Book Circle Critics' Award (US) in 1983 for 'Sandover', and a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for 'Divine Comedies', which contained some Ouija work.

WB Yeats didn't use a Ouija board, but his wife did. Apparently, the poet availed himself of some of her automatic writing, though.

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes apparently used a Ouija board together. She wrote a poem about it, which you may hear read eerily here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Io3KSHMo6A

So it's possible the Ouija was involved in Plath's Pulitzer, which was awarded posthumously - as, allegedly, predicted by the evil board.

Thanks Dmitri.

Perhaps I should get one. Then, when I say I'm talking to the spirits, people won't think

You'd be in good company.

Excellent entry!

I've got nothing further to add or comments to make, but I may as well mention that there's an entry on Sylvia Plath in the Flea Market: A946578 / F74125?thread=181419 should anyone wish to rescue it.

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Plath scholars, go to work!

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Perfectly spooky time of year for this to leave Peer Review too.

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well done

Thanks, folks.