In the chilling excerpt “A Night of Terror,” published in the December 1844 edition of The Knickerbocker, a delivery nurse is ripped from her normal life and asked to do the unthinkable one tempestuous night. By the end of the piece, she is returned to her home, and the implication is that, though she is back to where she started, she will never be the same. Curiously enough, that feeling of mystery and ephemerality which is so prevalent in the piece is also evident in the real-life story of its publication.

The Knickerbocker cites the piece as being from “an unpublished manuscript,” with an editor’s note pointing interested readers to “The Editor’s Table” later in the issue if they want more information. There, the editors mention the name of the manuscript, The Letter, or Two Birthdays, but do not mention the name of the author. They also express their confidence that the manuscript will become very successful and create a sensation, despite its not yet having found a publisher. The mystery is that, now, 150 years later, there is virtually no trace of the manuscript outside of The Knickerbocker, and no evidence that it ever was published, despite the editors’ high hopes. Just like the whole nightmarish incident described in the excerpt, the manuscript seems to have disappeared into the night, leaving only a sense of unease behind it.

Also worth noting is that the “Editor’s Table” additionally mentions that the manuscript was based upon true events. This, too, has not since been verified outside of The Knickerbocker, but the possibility that such a horrific incident may have actually occurred is enough to keep a person up at night. What exactly was the incident? Why was it so terrifying? Check out the December 1844 issue of the Knickerbocker to find out, but don’t forget to read the editor’s notes if you want to know how the story ends!