Jan Bryant Bartell

Jannis (Jan) Bryant Bartell, American author, was born in New York City in 1921 and died in New Rochelle, New York in 1973. Best known as the author of "Spindrift": "Spray From a Psychic Sea", she was also a poet, lecturer and off Broadway actress. She appeared in such plays as "Bell, Book and Candle" and "Night Must Fall". Her poetry was published in several magazines.

"Spindrift" relates the experiences of Bartell and her husband Fred G. Bartell (d.1990) while living in apartments in the buildings at 14-16 W.10th Street in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. According to the book, the apartments were haunted and Jan, at first a skeptic, underwent a series of unpleasant experiences that led her to modify her views on the paranormal.

The book chronicles Bartell's psychic development and the toll this took on an already unstable personality. Bartell attempted to address the paranormal activities surrounding her, going so far as to contact Hans Holzer. Holzer, a ghost hunter and writer on the paranormal, proved to be of little use in quelling or interpreting the experiences, and according to Bartell, his unsuccessful intervention only added to her distress.

Jan and her husband were complex individuals. Fred, a World War II combat veteran, suffered from PTSD which made him at times a difficult companion. Nonetheless, Fred had a successful career as a manager of several fashionable restaurants in New York City. Jan, according to those who knew her in the building, was a very spoiled and neurotic person who also probably suffered from clinical depression. Since there was little that could be done for this problem in the 1950s and 60's, this became a major factor in her life and certainly colored her writing. It is also believed that she attempted suicide on more than one occasion while living in the apartments.

The Bartells had no children. However Fred, and especially Jan, were strongly attached to the dogs that shared their lives during these difficult years. In fact, the story of the acquisition of one of these animals plays a prominent part in the book. The dogs also reacted negatively to the ghostly presences and provided Jan with validation as to the reality of her experiences.

In 1973, troubled with the social and economic changes affecting their neighborhood, Bartell and her husband left their beloved Greenwich Village and moved to suburban New Rochelle where they bought a home. There Jan Bartell apparently committed suicide on June 18, 1973 prior to the publication of her book.