Shadowland was published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan in 1980, following immediately on the success of Ghost Story. Two boys — Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale — attend a boarding school where strange events cluster around their friendship. The following summer, they visit Del’s uncle Coleman Collins, a retired stage magician living on a vast Vermont estate called Shadowland. What begins as theatrical education (Collins teaching the boys stage magic) escalates into something far more dangerous: Collins possesses genuine magical power, and he intends to pass it to his nephew — but the gift may require the destruction of Tom.
Straub’s deepest subject here is storytelling itself: Collins is a narrator as much as a magician, and the stories he tells the boys (fairy tales, myths, personal histories) have the power to shape reality. The novel is structured as a series of nested narratives — stories within stories within stories — reflecting its thesis that reality is constructed through narrative and that the most powerful storytellers can reshape the world.
The book is more overtly fantastical than Ghost Story: where the earlier novel maintained ambiguity about the nature of its supernatural elements, Shadowland embraces magic directly. The estate becomes a space where fairy-tale logic operates: transformations, enchantments, impossible architecture. Straub draws on the traditions of dark fairy tale (the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault) as well as the literature of stage magic (the novel’s depictions of illusion are technically precise).
Collecting Shadowland
First edition (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York, 1980): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $75–$200
- Very good: $30–$75
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Magic and Darkness
Shadowland (1980) followed the commercial success of Ghost Story and is arguably Straub’s most imaginative novel. Two boarding-school friends, Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale, spend a summer at Del’s uncle’s estate — a magician named Coleman Collins who possesses genuine supernatural powers. The novel blends fairy tales, stage magic, and horror into something sui generis. Straub’s prose is at its most ornate and allusive, and the novel’s structure — with its nested stories and unreliable framing — anticipates his later experimental work. First editions (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan) are sought by collectors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this connected to Straub’s other novels? Tom Flanagan reappears in the Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, Mystery, The Throat), making Shadowland a prequel of sorts to those later works.