The Magic Island - Softcover

Seabrook, William Buehler

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557782105 ISBN 13: 9781557782106

Publisher: Paragon House Publishers, 1989

Synopsis

A rare eyewitness account of voodoo practices in Haiti in the 1920s. "the best and most thrilling book of exploration".--New York Evening Post.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"The best and most thrilling book of exploration that we have ever read ... [an] immensely important book."--New York Evening Post
"A series of excellent stories about one of the most interesting corners of the American world, told by a keen and sensitive person who knows how to write."--American Journal of Sociology
"It can be said of many travelers that they have traveled widely. Of Mr. Seabrook a much finer thing may be said--he has traveled deeply."--The New York Times Book Review
This fascinating book, first published in 1929, offers firsthand accounts of Haitian voodoo and witchcraft rituals. Journalist and adventurer William Seabrook introduced the concept of the walking dead―zombies―to the West with his illustrated travelogue. He relates his experiences with the voodoo priestess who initiated him into the religion's rituals, from soul transference to resurrection. In addition to twenty evocative line drawings by Alexander King, this edition features a new Foreword by cartoonist and graphic novelist Joe Ollmann and a new Introduction by George A. Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead.

About the Author

William Buehler Seabrook was a journalist and explorer whose interest in the occult lead him across the globe where he studied magic rituals, trained as a witch doctor, and famously ate human flesh, likening it to veal. Despite his studious accounts of magical practices, he insisted he had never seen anything which could not be explained rationally. William Buehler Seabrook was an American adventurer, explorer, world traveler and journalist, born in Westminster, Maryland on February 22, 1884. He began his career as a reporter and City Editor of the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia and was later a reporter for The New York Times. He wrote a books based on his adventures including “Adventures in Arabia: Among the Bedouins, Druses, Whirling Dervisches & Yezidee Devil Worshipers”. He wrote books about witchcraft, Voodoo and Haiti. He is credited with introducing the word “Zombie” into the English Language. The first book covering the topics was William Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929). He died by suicide on September 20, 1945.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557782105
• ISBN 13: 9781557782106
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: King Alexander
• Number of pages: 336