Five Book Salute to Halloween

halloween 2014 penquin book of witches

Are you ready to get your spook on? October is here and that can only mean that Halloween is right around the corner.

Here are a few bookish goodies to help you get in the mood.

The Penguin Book of Witches. Edited by Katherine Howe, 2014.

Who better to give us a bit of witch history than Katherine Howe, a direct descendant of three accused Salem witches. Starting with the few scant mentions of witches in the Bible and taking us through the Salem Witch trails Howe provides nothing but source material to illuminate just how slippery and unconvincing the witch designation throughout history.

– of the book Library Journal says –  “With insightful notations . . . this superbly edited and annotated work provides in-depth material for those interested in the origins of witchcraft persecution in America.”

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s

halloween 2014 scott witchcraft

 

 

The first book on Witchcraft

The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot.
Being a Reprint of the First Edition Published in 1584. Edited with Explanatory Notes, Glossary and Introduction by Brinsley Nicholson.

The important 1886 edition of Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft.” It includes the complete text of the first (1584) edition, along with additional material that was added to the third (1665) edition, an important Introducion, and various “notings” (appendicies) of relevant material.
One of 250 copies printed.  Buy

halloween 2014 bradbury halloween treeThe Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini. Knopf, 1972. First Edition.

“a thousand pumpkin smiles look down from the Halloween Tree, and twice-times-a-thousand fresh-cut eyes glare and wink and blink..”

Buy at Book Patrol

Other First Editions

 

halloween 2014 death takes a holiday

 

Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal. Bloomsbury, NY, 2002

Buy

 

Two Too Many by Nora S. Unwin. David McKay Company, 1963. Third printing. Signed. Buy

halloween 2014 two too many