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Pleasing Terrors

Pleasing Terrors

By: Mike Brown
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 Join acclaimed ghost storyteller Mike Brown for a bi-weekly tour through the shadows of history. The Pleasing Terrors Podcast features stories about haunted places, creepy history, and forgotten folklore. Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Charleston Gothic: Part 4- Tekeli

    Charleston Gothic: Part 4- Tekeli
    Jan 12 2026

    CHARLESTON GOTHIC Episode 4: Tekeli

    The Charleston Library Society has survived fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and war—emerging each time with its treasures intact. Among those treasures: the world's most complete archive of Charleston newspapers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    In this episode, we enter the stacks where a ghost named Hinson is said to wander, where Henry Timrod's blood-stained manuscript bears witness to a poet's final days, and where a century-old scholarly article waited decades for someone to understand what it revealed.

    What was Edgar Allan Poe really searching for when he visited Charleston's archives during his time at Fort Moultrie? For over a hundred years, the legend said he came looking for pirate treasure—the buried gold that would inspire "The Gold-Bug." But a 1922 discovery by a Texas scholar suggested something far more personal.

    Following threads that connect the Poetry Society of South Carolina, a Harvard-trained philologist, and the vanished stage of the Charleston Theatre, we trace Poe's footsteps to a secret hidden in plain sight—one that may unlock the strangest passage he ever wrote.

    The answer lies where it has always been: in the newspapers, in the archives, in the advertisements for a play called Tekeli.

    Sources:

    Books

    - Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe (1926)

    - Allen, Hervey and DuBose Heyward. Carolina Chansons (1922)

    - Allen, Hervey and Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Poe's Brother: The Life and Poetry of William Henry Leonard Poe (1926)

    - Downey, Christopher Byrd. Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston (2020)

    - Kopley, Richard. Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (2025)

    - Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed. Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: Poems (Harvard University Press, 1969)

    - Poe, Edgar Allan. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838)

    - Ravenel, Beatrice Witte. The Arrow of Lightning (1926)

    Academic Articles

    - Law, Robert Adger. "A Source for 'Annabel Lee'" Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Volume 21 (April 1922)

    - Peeples, Scott and Michelle Van Parys. "Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry." Southern Cultures (2016)

    Newspapers & Periodicals

    - Charleston Courier (December 4, 1807)

    - Charleston Courier (March 22, 1811)

    - Charleston Mercury (2011)

    - News and Courier (February 6, 1889)

    - News and Courier (1938)

    - Southern Patriot (July 25, 1833)

    - Russell's Magazine

    - Southern Literary Messenger

    - Texas Review / Southwest Review

    Archival & Primary Sources

    - Charleston Library Society archives

    - Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Volume 21 — inscribed "Gift of author, Oct. 1934"

    - Surveyor's plat for Captain William C. Hammer (February 16, 1867)

    - Affidavit dated September 5, 1745 (Cid Campeador treasure deposition)

    Plays

    - Hook, Theodore Edward (libretto) and James Hook (music). Tekeli; or, The Siege of Montgatz

    Television

    - "Time Enough at Last." The Twilight Zone (1959)

    Reference Works

    - South Carolina Encyclopedia (entry on Henry Timrod)

    Interviews & Personal Communications

    - Christopher Byrd Downey (conversation at Owlbear Café)

    - Danielle Cox, Digital Historian, Charleston Library Society

    - Scott Peeples, phone interview

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Charleston Gothic: Part 3- Juliet's Tomb

    Charleston Gothic: Part 3- Juliet's Tomb
    Dec 28 2025
    Find the grave of Annabel Lee and you find the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe! In this episode, a hand-drawn map pulls us through a locked iron gate into Charleston's most overgrown churchyard, where legends gather like mist and names disappear into leaves. A lady in white wanders the paths. Sixty-four people have collapsed before this very gate. We follow the trail of Annabel Lee—the girl Poe loved, or invented, or summoned—and uncover the stranger story beneath the legend: a visiting scholar who survived war and exile, stood before Juliet's Tomb in Verona, and quietly planted a grave that may never have existed. The map points toward a burial—but the real treasure may be hidden elsewhere. What if the grave was a lie but the lie was true? Sources: The Ghosts of Charleston by Julian Buxton Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey A History Lover's Guide to Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2 Haunted Charleston by Sarah Pitzer Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles Source for Alexander Lenard: Primary Sources by Alexander Lenard Die Kuh auf dem Bast (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1963) The Valley of the Latin Bear (New York, 1965) - English translation Am Ende der Via Condotti: Römische Jahre (München: DTV Verlag, 2017) - translated by Ernö Zeltner Stories of Rome (Budapest: Corvina, 2013) - translated by Mark Baczoni O Vale Do Fim Do Mundo (São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2013) - translated by Paulo Schiller Die römische Küche (München, 1963) Sieben Tage Babylonisch (Stuttgart, 1964) A római konyha (1986) Winnie Ille Pu (Latin translation of Winnie-the-Pooh) Völgy a világ végén s más történetek (Budapest: Magvető, 1973) Secondary Sources - Books and Academic Articles Siklós, Péter. "Von Budapest bis zum Tal am Ende der Welt: Sándor Lénárds romanhafter Lebensweg" (online) Siklós, Péter. "The Klára Szerb – Alexander Lenard Correspondence." The Hungarian Quarterly 189 (2008): 42-61 Sachs, Lynne. "Alexander Lenard: A Life in Letters." The Hungarian Quarterly 199 (Autumn 2010): 93-104 Lénárt-Cheng, Helga. "A Multilingual Monologue: Alexander Lenard's Self-Translated Autobiography in Three Languages." Hungarian Cultural Studies 7 (January 2015) Vajdovics, Zsuzsanna. "Gli anni romani di Sándor Lénárd." Annuario: Studi e Documenti Italo-Ungheresi (Roma-Szeged, 2005) Vajdovics, Zsuzsanna. "Alexander Lenard: Portrait d'un traducteur émigrant." Atelier de Traduction 9 (2008): 185-191 Rapcsányi, László & Szerb, Klára. "Who Was Alexander Lenard? An Interview with Klára Szerb." The Hungarian Quarterly 189 (2008): 26-30 Lenard, Alexander. "A Few Words About Winnie Ille Pu." The Hungarian Quarterly 199 (2010): 87-92 Humblé, Philippe & Sepp, Arvi. "'Die Kriege haben mein Leben bestimmt': Alexander Lenard's Narratives of Brazilian Exile." In Hermann Gätje / Sikander Singh (Eds.), Grenze als Erfahrung und Diskurs (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2018) Badel, Keuly Dariana. "Writing oneself and the other: A biography of Alexander Lenard (1951-1972)." Proceedings of the XXVI National History Symposium – ANPUH (São Paulo, July 2011) Nascimento, Gabriela Goulart. "Erich Erdstein and the hunt for Nazis: A study on the book 'The Rebirth of the Swastika in Brazil.'" Federal University of Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, 2021) Mosimann, João Carlos. Catarinenses: Gênese E História (Florianópolis/SC, 2010) Kroener, Sebastian (Ed.). Das Hospital auf dem Palmenhof (Norderstedt, 2016) Ilg, Karl. Pioniere in Brasilien (Innsbruck/Wien/München, 1972) Lützeler, Paul Michael. "Migration und Exil in Geschichte, Mythos, und Literatur." In Bettina Bannasch / Gerhild Rochus (Eds.), Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Exilliteratur (Berlin/Boston, 2013): 3-25 Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism (New York, 1993) Said, Edward. Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures (New York, 1994) Herz-Kestranek, Miguel; Kaiser, Konstantin & Strigl, Daniela (Eds.). In welcher Sprache träumen Sie? Österreichische Lyrik des Exils und des Widerstands (Wien, 2007) Lomb, Kató. Harmony of Babel: Profiles of Famous Polyglots of Europe (Berkeley/Kyoto, 2013) Hungarian Periodical Obituaries and Commemorations Egri, Viktor. "A day in the invisible house." In Confession of Quiet Evenings (Bratislava: Madách, 1973): 162-166 Antalné Serb [Mrs. Antal Szerb]. "About Sándor Lénárd." Nagyvilág 1972/8: 1241-43 Kardos, György G. "Man at the end of the world: On the death of Sándor Lénárd." Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature), May 6, 1972: 6 Bélley, Pál. "Tomb at the end of the world." Magyar Hírlap, April 29, 1972: 13 Kardos, Tibor. "Farewell to the doctor of the valley: The memory of Sándor Lénárd." Magyar ...
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    55 mins
  • Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures

    Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures
    Dec 14 2025

    In this episode, we follow the Annabel Lee legend backward: from modern ghost tours to nineteenth-century poetry, from pirate treasure maps to academic footnotes, from Sullivan's Island beaches to a forgotten corner of a graveyard. What emerges is not a simple ghost story, but an obsession—shared by scholars, storytellers, and an entire city convinced that something precious was buried in the South Carolina Lowcountry and must be found.

    Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey

    Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle By C.G. Jung

    Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South

    Carolina Lowcountry

    Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys

    Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2

    Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner

    Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles

    The New York Evening Post

    The Charleston News and Courier

    The Sullivan's Island Edition of The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Durham and Elizabeth Verner Hamilton
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    54 mins
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