Halloween and the World of Rare Books

From its ancient origins to its modern-day interpretation, Halloween has both excited and frightened us through the generations as evidenced by the sheer wealth of material connected to the strange and paranormal. While Samhain, the festival that Halloween is based on, predates much of our written tradition, many of the monsters we have come to associate with the holiday are the products of our great literary tradition, we need only look to Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, or Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein. Many of the literary and occult rare books that we have on offer have contributed to the spirit of Halloween and our collective interest in the macabre and supernatural.

We stock a wide range of titles that make for the perfect Halloween read. From masters of the horror genre such as Shirley Jackson and Stephen King, to modern horror classics such as Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black and Richard Mathesen’s Hell House, and the very best of gothic literature from the Victorian era. 

For collectors of esoterica and occult knowledge, Halloween feels like the perfect time to expand your collection by buying a rare occult book. Whether your interests extend to British occultism, Italian witchcraft, tarot or mysticism we offer a wide selection of rare occult books to pique the interest of all scholars of the strange and unusual.

Our cataloguer and bookseller, Suzanna Beaupre, writes about the appeal of collecting occult rare books.

Occult and esoteric works offer a broad church of material for collectors, its scope ranging from legal accounts of early modern witch trials through to 20th -century literature inspired by those on the other side, travelling through divination, alchemy, tarot, stage magic, conjuring, and many other weird and wonderful avenues.

Peter Harrington’s first catalogue to delve into the occult, Friends on the Other Side, Journeys in the Occult, attempted to showcase some of this rich treasure trove of collecting potential. For Halloween we have put some works from the catalogue as well as our wider stock to highlight some of these genres, as well as the ever-relevant genre of ghost stories.

An increasingly popular area to collect is turn-of-the-century works by spiritualists and psychical researchers, whose highly visual publications offer an appealing glimpse into Victorian society. Spirit photography flourished in the late 1860s and early 1870s, with photos created by manipulating collodion wet plates, and examples of the medium are highly sought after. Many, including Arthur Conan Doyle in his collectable 1922 work The Case for Spirit Photography, maintained that while fraudsters were out there, true spirit photography was possible. As spiritualism was one of the fastest growing religions of the Victorian period there is a consequent wealth of published material to delve into. Alongside this interested in the veracity of ghosts was the flourishing literary area of ghost stories, spearheaded by famous names such as M. R. James and Arthur Machen, with authors such as Eleanor Scott and Margary Lawrence now recognised as key proponents of the genre. We’ve gathered examples of these here today, as well as a playlist of recommended listening to set the mood as you browse… personally I recommend starting with “The Twelve Apostles” in Eleanor Scott’s Randall’s Round and seeing where the night takes you as the veil thins and the bumps in the night creep closer…