Olivia Howard Dunbar

The Shell of Sense

Olivia Howard Dunbar, born in 1873, graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and headed for New York City, where she had a successful newspaper career. By the time she left journalism in 1902 to concentrate on her own writing, she was an editor at the New York World. She didn’t marry until her early forties, and she and her husband, a poet and playwright, were part of a lively circle of Greenwich Village writers that included Robert Frost.

From The Shell of Sense:

“To me, watching, listening, hovering. There came a dreadful purpose and a dreadful courage. Suppose, for one moment, Theresa should not only feel, but see me—would she dare to tell him then?”

Dunbar is best remembered for her contribution to the tradition of the ghost story. In an essay entitled “The Decay of the Ghost in Fiction,” she pointed out that “ever since literature began…what we call ‘the supernatural’ has been the staple material of the tellers of tales” and added a plea for its renaissance.

Ghosts and the supernatural played a large role in her own work. Her short story “The Dream Baby,” about a lesbian couple who desperately want a child, was far ahead of its time in terms of its social attitudes. “The Shell of Sense” is told from the point of view of a dead woman who watches as her widowed husband falls in love again. “The Long Chamber” is both a love story and a story of psychological suspense about a woman who has supported her husband’s career at the expense of her own. The story was probably an outgrowth of Dunbar’s involvement with women’s rights, especially the suffragist cause.

Corpse Reviver

Olivia Howard Dunbar was an important contributor to the tradition of the ghost story in the early twentieth century, so it seems only fitting to offer this cocktail recipe as a tribute to her wonderfully macabre work.

1 oz. gin

1 oz. Lillet Blanc

1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 oz. orange liqueur (e.g. Cointreau)

Lemon wheel for garnish

Pour all ingredients except lemon wheel into a cocktail shaker with ice. Stir well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon wheel. Serves 1.