Edwin Canfield

Edwin Lee Canfield’s book, "Fact, Fictions, and the Forbidden Predictions of the Amazing Criswell!" was released by Headpress Publishing U.K. in 2023 followed by "Criswell Predicts an Accurate Glimpse of the Future" published by Bear Manor Media. His articles, essays, and blogs have appeared in publications such as Fate magazine, Grindhouse Resurrection, Filmfax, and Cinema Retro. He has a number of projects in the works, from “laid bare” biographies to the true story of a woman murdered by human wolves, the real history of the elusive Jackalope, and a number of screenplays. He also spends time watching obscure films, exploring ghost towns, and is an avid Thana tourist. His main goal and desire as a writer is to take the title of “king of lowbrow literature” from the late, not-so-great, Leo Guild.

He is a writer and researcher whose work explores the dark underbelly of American myth where outlaw culture, occult Americana, and Hollywood dreams collide. His gritty, atmospheric storytelling blends pulp realism with philosophical edge, continuing a tradition of transgressive noir and countercultural rebellion.

Canfield was born and raised in Oklahoma, but currently resides in the desert.

Writing credits include:

“Criswell Predicts: The Life and Prophecies of the Amazing Criswell!”, Filmfax Magazine, Spring 2006

“Criswell Returns!” The Zwilight Tone, Fall 2020

"The Gray Area” from "From the Dead", Dead Star Press Anthology, 2022

"Criswell Predicts 1999!" Fate Magazine Website, Winter 2022

"Fact, Fictions, and the Forbidden Predictions of the Amazing Criswell!" Headpress Books U.K., 2023

"Rebel Rousers: The True Story of a Fake Biker Gang that Terrorized the Living Ghost Town of Chloride, Arizona!" Filmfax Magazine, Spring 2023

“Flying Saucers Over Hollywood!” Fate Magazine Website, Summer 2023

“Criswell Predicts an Accurate Glimpse of the Future” Bear Manor Media, 2023

“Wild Angels: The Z-Movie that Inspired the Movie that Changed Hollywood” Cinema Retro, May 2024

"Satan's Angels: Blood Moon Massacre" Coyote Moon Books, October 2025

“Canfield cannily celebrates Criswell's bullshit while pulverizing right through it. CRISWELL PREDICTS! you will like this book on The Amazing Criswell, most assuredly a best seller of this dimension…and the next!”  Rod Lott - Flick Attack

“For people who grew up in Los Angeles back when it was the old weird L.A., our imaginations were not just filled, but overfilled by The Amazing Criswell. In this obsessively researched chronicle, Canfield documents the atomic era’s most fascinating charlatan. There should be a movie about Criswell, and not just Ed Wood, and this is the book the movie should be based on.”

K. W. Jeter - Cyberpunk and Steampunk author of Dr. Adder, Noir, and Infernal Devices

“I foresee that you will find it difficult to put down a book about a man who dared to predict on national television, while he sat next to Johnny Carson, that there would be an onslaught of ‘bed bugs in Boston.’ His public demeanor remained hilarious, flamboyant, and outrageous. I am so pleased that Ed Canfield has seen fit to share with us this colorful figure.”

The Amazing Kreskin; Mentalist and Author

“Criswell is fortunate to have found his biographer in Ed Canfield. The result of years of research, the mysterious Criswell finally emerges in all his campy glory for the reader in this affectionate biography. Canfield's writing is snappy and entertaining. He makes Criswell live again. A rewarding and enjoyable read, a must-have for all fans of Ed Wood and the surreal.”

Warren Beath; Author of The Death of James Dean and Who Killed James Dean?

“At last, one of 20th century America’s greatest and most bizarre showmen gets his date in court. Criswell is known primarily for his association with such figures as Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Bela Lugosi; veteran writer Ed Canfield finally does justice to a man whose loyal fans included such stars of the Silver Screen as Mae West and Virginia O’Brien. He brings to a life a figure whom no one who knew can ever forget!”

Charles Coulombe; Author, Lecturer, Theologian

“Edwin Canfield’s extremely well researched account of Criswell’s eccentric life is not only entertaining, but also reveals how Criswell’s relative fame through mass-media can be seen as an innocent symptom of the beginning and continuation of the blurring of the razor-thin line between factual News and Entertainment fiction in late twentieth century America. The line which has now been all but obliterated in the twenty-first century.”

Charles P. Wireman; Reporter@Large