Macabre Holiday Gift Guide 2016 December 1, 2016 The time is upon us for another Macabre Holiday Gift Guide! This year, we’ve decided to focus solely on books, in part because there were so many amazing ones this year, and in part because our Boroughs of the Dead guides have had quite a few publications among them in 2016. Also, who doesn’t love a book for the holidays?
Two Boroughs of the Dead Guides Featured in Morris-Jumel Anthology October 13, 2016 Boroughs of the Dead is proud to announce that two of its guides are featured in the upcoming Morris-Jumel Mansion Anthology of Paranormal and Fantasy Fiction, published by Riverdale Books.
Round Manhattan’s Rim July 7, 2015 In 1933, journalist Helen Worden of the World-Telegram decided to take a jaunt. With her friend Ruth Steinway in tow, she circumnavigated the waterfront of Manhattan island, and wrote it all up in a pithy little number called Round Manhattan’s Rim. This Depression-era travelogue is a wonderful curio that opens up a vintage Pandora’s-hatbox of questions, from “What is a B.E.F.?” to “Where on earth was Spanish-town,” and “When did the Seaport stop being painted in bright colors of blue and white?”
The Victorian Book of the Dead February 8, 2015 Chris Woodyard knows that the morbidly-obsessed Victorians had “as many words for death as the Inuit do for types of snow,” and she shares her knowledge in the relentlessly fascinating compendium of grim 19th century arcana, The Victorian Book of the Dead.
Ruth Edna Kelley: Librarian, Authoress, Badass October 27, 2014 Who was Ruth Edna Kelley and why am I obsessed with her? Kelley was a twenty-six year-old librarian who literally wrote the book on Halloween. Back in 1919, Kelley wrote The Book of Halloween, which I picked up in a slightly crumbling hardback first edition (!!!) from the Brooklyn Public Library (why and how they […]
Poe Land by J.W. Ocker October 3, 2014 J.W. Ocker’s Poe Land is pure fandom fun. Structured like a road trip from Boston to South Carolina, this engaging travelogue meets up with collectors, enthusiasts, actors, and scholars, to form a fascinating picture of the people who keep Poe’s legacy alive. I must admit that, initially, I wasn’t crazy about the fact that the […]
Q&A With Paul Collins, Author of The Fever Called Living September 26, 2014 This autumn, fans have been lucky enough to see the release of two great new books on Edgar Allan Poe.* The first of these, The Fever Called Living, has rapidly become my most recommended resource for anyone out there looking for a really solid and straightforward Poe biography. In an astonishing 107 pages, Paul Collins […]
Guest post from Leanna Renee Heiber: 14 West 10th Street August 13, 2014 The following guest post comes courtesy of Leanna Renee Heiber, actress, playwright, and award-winning bestselling author of multiple Historical Fantasy series for adults and teens, including the Strangely Beautiful saga, the Magic Most Foul saga and the forthcoming Eterna Files saga from Tor/Forge. Most of her books are set in Victorian New York and all […]
Titanic First Person Accounts: Lawrence Beesley April 7, 2014 Some of the most compelling Titanic first-person accounts come from Lawrence Beesley’s The Loss of the SS Titanic. Second class passenger Beesley was a scientist and author, and he’s one of those rare people who seem equally gifted in both fields. He writes crystalline clear prose that is devastating without being histrionic: “Imagine a […]