Today's pick:  Freedom : a photographic history of the African American struggle

 

 

Why is a cemetery a good place to write a story? Why, because there are so many plots there! 

In addition to looking up terrible Halloween jokes, Special Collections has decided to get into the spirit of Halloween by sharing selections from our various collections that are filled with magic, the supernatural, and horror. Graduate Assistant Jessi Deane went through four of our different collections and pulled out her personal favorites to share with all of you! The best part—all of these selections are available for you to come and look at yourselves! 

GENERAL/RARE BOOKS COLLECTION

The History of Witchcraft and Demonology by Montague Summers

Written in 1926, Summers claims that this history of the supernatural spans too far across time and too far across the globe to accurately portray all of it. However, by choosing to focus on just Europe, he is able to examine two or three specific aspects of witchcraft and demonology. One of the things that stood out the most of me about Summers’ history was his argument that “it is quite impossible to appreciate and understand the true lives of [men and women]…unless we have some realization of the part that Witchcraft played in those ages” (ix). Although Summers certainly doesn’t try to claim that his findings are particularly historical or scientific,any fan of the supernatural and the occult should definitely come and check this out!

Famous Curses by Elliot O’Donnell

Not long after Montague Summers wrote his history of witchcraft, O’Donnell published a collection of famous curses that were supposedly cast around the world. One of these is the “Screaming Skulls of Calgarth,” which is quite similar to one of those urban legends that Jessi heard so often as a kid. Now, the real question is, are these tales of real curses? Or are they simply ghost stories told to children to keep them up at night? You may have to decide that for yourself. 

Bibliotheca Curiosa. A Treatise of Magic Incantations of Christianus Pazig edited by Edmund Goldsmid

Written in 1700, and translated in 1886 for an English audience, this little book traces the power of words in magic. Where do incantations come from? Why are they worded the way that they are? What powers do those words have? Or, perhaps, could it be that some of these “incantations” don’t have meaning simply because the words that they are made up of don’t have any meaning? These are all important questions that this little book attempts to answer. 

ROSENFELD COLLECTION

WerewolveSS by Jerry and Sharon Ahern

In 1944, Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels outlined a plan called the “Werwolf,” which would place a guerrilla resistance force behind the Allied lines as they moved through Germany. When combining this with the popular historical interpretation of Hitler as an “occult groupie,” I’m sure you can guess where Jerry and Sharon Ahern went with this book! (Hint: Avid watchers of the hit HBO drama True Blood have definitely seen this before!)  A story of terror and suspense, WerewolveSS is definitely worth a read! 

The Howling by Gary Brandner

In the spirit of Halloween, be sure to check out another terrifying piece of werewolf literature! Following traumatic events in their lives, Karyn and Roy Beatty decide to move from the grimy city of Los Angles to the secluded mountain town of Drago. Although the town and its inhabitants seem friendly enough, it soon becomes apparent that something sinister is happening behind the scenes. The 1981 film The Howling is based on this blood curdling novel. 

The Tomb and other Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft, the author of the bone-chilling novel The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales, wrote The Tomb in 1917, making it the first piece of literature written by him in his adult life. Published in the March 1922 issue of The Vagrant, The Tomb and Other Tales consists of seventeen different short stories, early “novels”, and fragments by the master of horror fiction himself.  Jessi’s favorites are the fragments, specifically “Azathoth”; ranging from just one paragraph to only two or three pages, they were found in Lovecraft’s papers and were never expanded into short stories of their own. 

THE ARNOLD/HOWARD COLLECTION

Ghosts and Haunted Houses of Maryland by Trish Gallagher

Do you love haunted houses and stories of ghosts, ghouls, and spirits? Do you live in Maryland? Well, according to Trish Gallagher, you’re in luck! Claiming that our home state is “alive” with ghosts and other creepy hauntings, Gallagher records the stories of Maryland’s twenty-five most haunted sites. Although this may be Jessi’s own interest in Baltimore’s Confederate women shining through, but her personal favorite is the story of “The Hauntings at the Surratt House”. Mary Surratt, one of the alleged co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination, is said to have begun haunting her family’s home following her execution in 1865. The best part about this book? All of these haunted sites and houses can be visited!

COMIC BOOK COLLECTION

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2011, this particular comic series follows the canonical continuation of the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The comics themselves start on year after the series finale, picking up the stories of our favorite characters right where we left them. True to the original in every way, Season Eight (and later Season Nine) was produced by Joss Whedon and utilized many of the same writers from the Whedon-verse. 

Listen up, true believers!  We’ve talked about superheroes and we’ve talked about Nick Fury.  But comics aren’t all fun and games!  Since the first modern comic book was published around the turn of the 20^th century, they have been attacked by the powers-that-be for their content, their quality, and their artistic value.  In 1954, faced with the possibility of government censorship after heated Senate hearings on the impact of comics on juvenile delinquency, publishers adopted the Comics Code, a self-censorship mechanism modeled after the film industry’s restrictive Hays Code.  The comics industry was forever changed.

The exhibit “All Lurid, Unsavory, Gruesome Illustrations Shall Be Eliminated: The Comics Code as seen through the UMBC Comics Collection,” currently on display in the Special Collections Department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library isn’t just about looking at some cool rare comics.  It’s a chance to see the ways in which the industry has changed over the past 70 years, from pushing the envelope of taste in order to sell comics, to wilting under restrictions on its creativity, and back to pushing the envelope.  We see how rare pre-Code, Silver Age and underground titles led to non-Code magazines and today’s graphic novels.

This exhibit is also an opportunity to see some fantastic original comic art from the 1970s, from legendary artists such as Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr. and Joe Sinnott.  Straight out of the Special Collections vault, these pieces have almost never been seen in public! Paired with the finished published books, they are great examples of the process of the comic book artists of the time.

So come on down, superfans!  This exhibit will be on display until May 16^th, so you’ve got plenty of time.  Special Collections, located inside the library’s first floor gallery, is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-4 pm, and Thursdays from 1-8 pm.  Other hours are available by appointment. Please provide advance notice if you will be arriving via invisible jet.

To browse all of the comics available at Special Collections, enter “comic books” in the “Collection” field in the following search; or put in more specific search terms to find the exact comic you’re looking for: http://umbc.pastperfect-online.com/37467cgi/mweb.exe?request=advform

by Steve Ammidown, Special Collections Student Assistant

Image from Planet Comics #30, May 1944