Ellen Glasgow wrote only thirteen short stories during her long career, seven of which appeared in The Shadowy Third. Published in 1923 by Doubleday, Page & Company, it was the only collection of short stories published during her lifetime. Of the seven tales it contains, only four are supernatural, but all have an eerie quality to them; in fact, ‘Jordan’s End’, a non-ghost story, is the most ghostly story that the author ever wrote. This new edition contains the seven stories included in the first edition and adds to those tales a seventeen-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, ‘Ellen Glasgow: The Solitary Spirit’.
 
‘This book of Miss Ellen Glasgow’s stories should delight those who appreciate a breath of the unseen impinging upon the real and actual. Whether it be the stored memories of an old Virginian house reacting upon a sensitive nature, the wraith of a child done to death still hovering in the eyes of simple folks at twilight, or some other wafting from the eerie borderland, Miss Glasgow can give the emotion and the intangible charm of such glimmerings with a delicate and deliberate art. These seven stories are in no sense horrible, but they have the fascination of psychic touch in their admirably told happenings.’ Gentlewoman, 13 September 1924.
 
‘Those who like the weird, but not too weird, touch in fiction will find much quiet enjoyment in Miss Glasgow’s gracious manner of story-telling.’ The Sketch, 30 April 1924.

'The ease and dignity of Miss Glasgow's English recalls the work of R. L. Stevenson.' Birmingham Daily Post, 10 June 1924.