Others were clearly embellished or entirely fictional, reproduced and recirculated without critical examination.

The societies had an institutional interest in finding and publicizing cases of premature burial, which created an incentive to accept and repeat stories that might not have withstood rigorous scrutiny.

The existence of these societies and their publications is part of the background against which the Essie Dunbar story must be read.

By the early twentieth century, premature burial had been a major cultural anxiety for more than a century.

Stories of miraculous survival — of people who had been given up for dead and then returned to life — were part of a recognized and well-established narrative tradition.