Vampire Actor Max Schreck on This Day in History

 

This day in history. German actor Max Schreck was born on this day in 1879. The world mostly knows Schreck for one thing, his portrayal of Count Orloff in the 1922 classic silent film Nosferatu.

We can thank movie pirates that we know of Max Schreck at all. 

"The German silent film “Nosferatu — Eine Symphonie des Grauens” from 1922 is another example about how copyright laws can harm the society.

Today it is seen as a milestone in the film history, and not because of the story. But it was nearly lost for good.

The film is loosely based on the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker. But the film makers couldn’t get the rights to make a film of this novel. So they changed all names and changed the story a little. But Florence Stoker, the widow of Bram Stoker sued, and a court ordered that all copies of the film have to be destroyed.

But copies of the film have already been sold to foreign countries, which were not bound to German law. So these copies could be saved from destruction. Today there is a German “restored” version. But this version was mostly restored from the foreign copies.

The film is still under copyright in Germany. But it seems it is in the public domain in the USA. So the English version is available on the internet today (This version uses the names of the novel, but the original film had other names in it)." Source

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Countess Dracula, Elizabeth Báthory on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Elizabeth Báthory was born on this day in 1560. She was nicknamed the Blood Countess and she is said to have killed 650 young girls...many of whom died in very cruel ways. She may have been one of the first and most prolific female serial killers.

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her virgin victims' blood to retain beauty or youth. This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi's Tragica Historia, the first written account of the Báthory case. The story came into question in 1817 when the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time. They included no references to blood baths. In his book Hungary and Transylvania, published in 1850, John Paget describes the supposed origins of Báthory's blood-bathing, although his tale seems to be a fictionalized recitation of oral history from the area. It is difficult to know how accurate his account of events is. Sadistic pleasure is considered a far more plausible motive for Báthory's crimes.

Báthory has been labelled by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer, though the number of her victims is debated.

The Wide World Magazine of 1914 wrote of Bathory: 

"Now Elizabeth was to all outward appearances strikingly handsome-beautiful of form and face. Like most pretty women she naturally cherished a desire to remain bewitching as long as possible, and the scheme which she adopted to this end was distinctly original.

In one way and another young girls were lured to the castle, perhaps on the pretext of being engaged as servants, but really to be murdered! These unfortunate creatures were conducted to the cellar of the castle, and here, presumably in à state of nature, were compelled to walk towards the figure of a large doll. This doll was nothing more than a diabolical machine, in the construction of which a number of knives had been introduced. In approaching this hideous invention the victim all unwittingly released a hidden spring, which set the machine in action. Like a living fiend the outstretched arms of the doll grasped the poor girl in a death embrace before she had a chance to withdraw, literally cutting her to pieces in a few moments. The blood from the body was conducted by small channels to a bath close by, and in this Elizabeth is said to have bathed, thinking thereby to preserve her beauty.

These atrocities went on for no less than ten years before they were discovered, and some six hundred girls are said to have lost their lives in this way. The crimes came to light through one of the girls enticed to the castle managing to get in communication with her sweetheart, who rescued her after surmounting great difficulties.

Now this story is fact, not fable. It is quite possible that the number of lives sacrificed did not aggregate six hundred, but the manner in which the girls met their death and the gist of the story in general is correct. That such a state of affairs could have gone on for years without being discovered may seem to many incredible. But a visit to Csejthe (castle) is sufficient to satisfy anybody as to the probability of the story. It is one of the wildest, most isolated spots that could possibly be imagined.

Quite justly, the ogress Elizabeth Bathory herself came to a dreadful end, being imprisoned in one of the rooms of the castle, where she was slowly starved to death."

Bram Stoker's Dracula on this Day in History

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This day in history: Dracula was published on this day in 1897. The novel did not make much money for the author, Bram Stoker, who eventually went broke just before he died. The movies are what really made Dracula a star. He has appeared in more films than any other horror character—over 200 and counting—and that number doesn't even include comedies and cartoons.

Bram Stoker started writing Dracula right after the Jack the Ripper killings, but it may also have been influenced by a Romanian prince named Vlad Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, who was known for skewering his enemies. The working title of the novel was The Dead Undead, which was later shortened to The Undead. Right before the book was published, Stoker changed the title to Dracula.

Watch Nosferatu

The 1922 German classic film Nosferatu was almost destroyed because of the Dracula copyright. Today, Dracula is now in the public domain.

Did you know: "Count Dracula’s reputation as a blood-sucking vampire is based more on fact than most people realize. The real Count Dracula was a prince known as Vlad the Impailer. He was a politician, in other words. He earned his nickname by beheading what the IRS would call “tax cheats” and impailing their heads on posts in order to scare the s_ _ _ out of other would-be 'cheats.'"

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/dracula-and-the-irs/

Christopher Lee Reads Dracula

See also History of the Terror Tale by Edith Birkhead 1921

See also The Trial and Death of Gilles de Rais, the Original Bluebeard/Dracula

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The Most Evil Man in History, Gilles de Rais, on This Day in History

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"Gilles de Rais - one of the most glorious, sinister, enigmatic figures in all European history." -- Henry Miller 

Gilles de Rais was hanged and burned on this day in 1440. 

Baron de Rais was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. However, he is best known for his reputation and later conviction as a confessed serial killer of children. 

Rais is also believed to be the inspiration for the French horror folktale "Bluebeard." How many people Gilled de Rais killed is not known since most of his victims were either burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 100 and 200; a few have conjectured that there were more than 600. The victims ranged in age from 6 to 18 and were predominantly boys. 

Lewis Spensce wrote the following about Gilles de Rais in 1917:

Of the dark and terrible legends to which Brittany has given birth, one of the most gloomy and romantic is the story of Gilles de Retz, alchemist, magician, and arch-criminal. But the story is not altogether legendary, although it has undoubtedly been added to from the great stores of tradition. Gilles is none other than the Bluebeard of the nursery tale, for he appears to have actually worn a beard bluish-black in hue, and it is probable that his personality became mingled with that of the hero of the old Oriental story.

Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz and Marshal of France, was connected with some of the noblest families in Brittany, those of Montmorency, Rocey, and Craon, and at his father’s death, about 1424, he found himself lord of many princely domains, and what, for those times, was almost unlimited power and wealth. He was a handsome youth, lithe and of fascinating address, courageous, and learned as any clerk. A splendid career lay before him, but from the first that distorted idea of the romantic which is typical of certain minds had seized upon him, and despite his rank and position he much preferred the dark courses which finally ended in his disgrace and ruin to the dignities of his seigneury.

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Gilles took his principal title from the barony of Retz or Rais, south of the Loire, on the marches of Brittany. As a youth he did nothing to justify an evil augury of his future, for he served with zeal and gallantry in the wars of Charles VI against the English and fought under Jeanne Darc at the siege of Orléans. In virtue of these services, and because of his shrewdness and skill in affairs, the King created him Marshal of France. But from that time onward the man who had been the able lieutenant of Jeanne Darc and had fought by her side at Jargeau and Patay began to deteriorate. Some years before he had married Catherine de Thouars, and with her had received a large dowry; but he had expended immense sums in the national cause, and his private life was as extravagant as that of a prince in a fairy tale. At his castle of Champtocé he dwelt in almost royal state; indeed, his train when he went hawking or hunting exceeded in magnificence that of the King himself. His retainers were tricked out in the most gorgeous liveries, and his table was spread with ruinous abundance. Oxen, sheep, and pigs were roasted whole, and viands were provided daily for five hundred persons. He had an insane love of pomp and display, and his private devotions were ministered to by a large body of ecclesiastics. His chapel was a marvel of splendour, and was furnished with gold and silver plate in the most lavish manner. His love of colour and movement made him fond of theatrical displays, and it is even said that the play or mystery of Orléans, dealing with the story of Jeanne Darc, was written with his own hand. He was munificent in his patronage of the arts, and was himself a skilled illuminator and bookbinder. In short, he was obviously one of those persons of abnormal character in whom genius is allied to madness and who can attempt and execute nothing except in a spirit of the wildest excess.

The reduction of his fortune merely served his peculiar and abnormal personality with a new excuse for extravagance. At this time the art of alchemy flourished exceedingly and the works of Nicolas Flamel, the Arabian Geber, and Pierre d’Estaing enjoyed a great vogue. On an evil day it occurred to Gilles to turn alchemist, and thus repair his broken fortunes. In the first quarter of the fifteenth century alchemy stood for scientific achievement, and many persons in our own enlightened age still study its maxims. A society exists to-day the object of which is to further the knowledge of alchemical science. A common misapprehension is current to the effect that the object of the alchemists was the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, but in reality they were divided into two groups, those who sought eagerly the secret of manufacturing the precious metals, and those who dreamed of a higher aim, the transmutation of the gross, terrestrial nature of man into the pure gold of the spirit.

The latter of these aims was beyond the fevered imagination of such a wild and disorderly mind as that of Gilles de Retz. He sent emissaries into Italy, Spain, and Germany to invite adepts in the science to his castle at Champtocé. From among these he selected two men to assist him in his plan—Prelati, an alchemist of Padua, and a certain physician of Poitou, whose name is not recorded. At their instigation he built a magnificent laboratory, and when it was completed commenced to experiment. A year passed, during which the necessities of the ‘science’ gradually emptied many bags of gold, but none returned to the Marshal’s coffers. The alchemists slept soft and fed sumptuously, and were quite content to pursue their labours so long as the Seigneur of Retz had occasion for their services. But as the time passed that august person became greatly impatient, and so irritable did he grow because of the lack of results that at length his assistants, in imminent fear of dismissal, communicated to him a dark and dreadful secret of their art, which, they assured him, would assist them at arriving speedily at the desired end.

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The nature of the experiment they proposed was so grotesque that its acceptance by Gilles proves that he was either insane or a victim of the superstition of his time. His wretched accomplices told him that the Evil One alone was capable of revealing the secret of the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, and they offered to summon him to their master’s aid. They assured Gilles that Satan would require a recompense for his services, and the Marshal retorted that so long as he saved his soul intact he was quite willing to conclude any bargain that the Father of Evil might propose.

It was arranged that the ceremony should take place within a gloomy wood in the neighbourhood. The nameless physician conducted the Lord of Retz to a small clearing in this plantation, where the magic circle was drawn and the usual conjurations made. For half an hour they waited in silence, and then a great trembling fell upon the physician. A deadly pallor overspread his countenance. His knees shook, he muttered wildly, and at last he sank to the ground. Gilles stood by unmoved. The insanity of egotism is of course productive of great if not lofty courage, and he feared neither man nor fiend. Suddenly the alchemist regained consciousness and told his master that the Devil had appeared to him in the shape of a leopard and had growled at him horribly. He ascribed Gilles’ lack of supernatural vision to want of faith. He then declared that the Evil One had told him where certain herbs grew in Spain and Africa, the juices of which possessed the power to effect the transmutation, and these he obligingly offered to search for, provided the Lord of Retz furnished the means for his travels. This Gilles gladly did, and of course never beheld the Poitevin knave again.

Days and months passed and the physician did not return. Gilles grew uneasy. It was imperative that gold should be forthcoming immediately, for not only was he being pressed on every side, but he was unable to support his usual magnificence. In this dilemma he turned to Prelati, his remaining alchemical assistant. This man appears to have believed in his art or he would not have made the terrible suggestion he did, which was that the Lord of Retz should sign with his own blood a compact with the Devil, and should offer up a young child in sacrifice to him. To this proposal the unhappy Gilles consented. On the following night Prelati quitted the castle, and returned shortly afterward with the story that the fiend had appeared to him in the likeness of a young man who desired to be called Barron, and had pointed out to him the resting-place of a hoard of ingots of pure gold, buried under an oak in the neighbouring wood. Certain conditions, however, must be observed before the treasure was dug up, the chief of which was that it must not be searched for until a period of seven times seven weeks had elapsed, or it would turn into slates. With these conditions de Retz would not comply, and, alarmed at his annoyance, the obliging Prelati curtailed the time of waiting to seven times seven days. At the end of that period the alchemist and his dupe repaired to the wood to dig up the treasure. They worked hard for some time, and at length came upon a load of slates, inscribed with magical characters. Prelati pretended great wrath, and upbraided the Evil One for his deceit, in which denunciation he was heartily joined by de Retz. But so credulous was the Seigneur that he allowed himself to be persuaded to afford Satan another trial, which meant, of course, that Prelati led him on from day to day with specious promises and ambiguous hints, until he had drained him of nearly all his remaining substance. He was then preparing to decamp with his plunder when a dramatic incident detained him.

For some time a rumour had been circulating in the country-side that numerous children were missing and that they had been spirited away. Popular clamour ran high, and suspicion was directed toward the castle of Champtocé. So circumstantial was the evidence against de Retz that at length the Duke of Brittany ordered both the Seigneur and his accomplice to be arrested. Their trial took place before a commission which de Retz denounced, declaring that he would rather be hanged like a dog, without trial, than plead before its members. But the evidence against him was overwhelming. It was told how the wretched madman, in his insane quest for gold, had sacrificed his innocent victims on the altar of Satan, and how he had gloated over their sufferings. Finally he confessed his enormities and told how nearly a hundred children had been cruelly murdered by him and his relentless accomplice. Both he and Prelati were doomed to be burned alive, but in consideration of his rank he was strangled before being cast into the flames. Before the execution he expressed to Prelati a hope that they would meet in Paradise, and, it is said, met his end very devoutly.

The castle of Champtocé still stands in its beautiful valley, and many romantic legends cluster about its grey old walls. “The hideous, half-burnt body of the monster himself,” says Trollope, “circled with flames—pale, indeed, and faint in colour, but more lasting than those the hangman kindled around his mortal form in 180 the meadow under the walls of Nantes—is seen, on bright moonlight nights, standing now on one topmost point of craggy wall, and now on another, and is heard mingling his moan with the sough of the night-wind. Pale, bloodless forms, too, of youthful growth and mien, the restless, unsepulchred ghosts of the unfortunates who perished in these dungeons unassoiled ... may at similar times be seen flitting backward and forward, in numerous groups, across the space enclosed by the ruined wall, with more than mortal speed, or glancing hurriedly from window to window of the fabric, as still seeking to escape from its hateful confinement.”

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Dracula Actor Bela Lugosi on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: Hungarian horror actor Bela Lugosi was born on this day in 1882. Lugosi is best known for playing Dracula in the 1931 Universal movie. In fact, that movie was so big, it turned Bela Lugosi into a household name and may have saved Universal studios from bankruptcy.

The movie Dracula also turned Bela Lugosi into a sex symbol...97 percent of his fan mail came from women. In fact, one of his fans who wrote to him, Hope Lininger, who was 37 years his junior, became his fifth wife.

Lugosi was also something of a philatelist. Like other actors (Charlie Chaplin, Gary Burghoff, James Earl Jones and Patrick Dempsey), he enjoyed stamp collecting as a hobby. Lugosi would have loved knowing that he would eventually be on a US stamp in 1997. 

Lugosi could not avoid typecasting. His Hungarian accent limited his prospects to certain niche horror movies at the time.

Bela Lugosi died penniless in 1956. Dracula author Bram Stoker also died penniless in 1912. Many such writers died in poverty, such as Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft and The Picture of Dorian Gray author Oscar Wilde. 

There are about 100 movies based on Dracula or characters derived from Bram Stoker's famous book:

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Batman Dracula

Batman Fights Dracula

The Batman vs. Dracula

Billy the Kid Versus Dracula

Blacula

Blade: Trinity

Blood for Dracula

Blood of Dracula's Castle

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974 film)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film)

Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse

Bram Stoker's Dracula's Guest

The Brides of Dracula

Count Dracula (1970 film)

Count Dracula (1977 film)

Count Dracula's Great Love

The Creeps (film)

Cuadecuc, vampir

Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula

Deafula

Doctor Dracula

Dracula (1931 English-language film)

Dracula (1931 Spanish-language film)

Dracula (1958 film)

Dracula (1979 film)

Dracula (2006 film)

Dracula (miniseries)

Dracula 3D

Dracula 2000

Dracula 2012

Dracula 3000

Dracula A.D. 1972

Dracula and Son

Drácula contra Frankenstein

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Dracula II: Ascension

Dracula III: Legacy

Dracula Reborn

Dracula Sir

Dracula Untold

Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Dracula: The Dark Prince

Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Dog

Dracula's Widow

Dracula's Death

The Dragon Lives Again

Drakula İstanbul'da

Fracchia contro Dracula

The Halloween That Almost Wasn't

Hollywood on Parade No. A-8

Hotel Transylvania (film)

Hotel Transylvania 2

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

House of Dracula

House of Frankenstein (miniseries)

House of the Wolf Man

Hrabe Drakula

Jonathan (1970 film)

Lady Dracula

Lake of Dracula

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice

Love at First Bite

Mad Mad Mad Monsters

Mad Monster Party?

Monster Family

Monster Mash (1995 film)

Monster Mash (2000 film)

The Monster Squad

Los Monstruos del Terror

Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula

Nosferatu

Nosferatu the Vampyre

The Return of Dracula

Saint Dracula 3D

Santo en el tesoro de Drácula

The Satanic Rites of Dracula

Scars of Dracula

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf

Scream Blacula Scream

Shadow of the Vampire

Son of Darkness: To Die For II

Son of Dracula (1943 film)

A Taste of Blood

Taste the Blood of Dracula

Tender Dracula

To Die For (1989 film)

U.F.O. (1993 film)

Vampira (1974 film)

Vampire Hunter D (1985 film)

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Vampyros Lesbos

Van Helsing (film)

The Vulture's Eye

Waxwork (film)

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Contents:

Vikram and the Vampire - Tales of Hindu devilry by Richard Francis Burton 1893

The House of the Vampire by By George Sylvester Viereck 1907

The Vampyre - A Tale, by John William Polidori 1819

The Vampire Nemesis and Other Weird Stories of the China Coast 1905

Dracula by Bram Stoker 1897

The Land beyond the Forest: facts, figures and fancies from Transylvania by Emily Gerard 1888 (This was the book Bram Stoker used for research)

Wandering Ghosts by Marion Crawford 1911

The Stolen Bacillus, and Other Incidents by HG Wells 1904 (contains THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID, Wells' unique vampire tale)

Pan's Garden, a volume of nature stories by A Blackwood (contains The Transfer, a vampire tale)

In a Glass Darkly (Volume 1) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1872

In a Glass Darkly (Volume 2) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1872

In a Glass Darkly (Volume 3) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 (In a Glass Darkly contains a story called Carmilla, a lesbian vampire)

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The Wizard of the North, The Vampire Bride and other Poems by Thomas Lidell Ravensworth 1833

Ligeia by Edgar Allen Poe (Poe's unique vampire story) 1911

Modern Ghosts by Guy de Maupassant 1890 (contains The Horla, about a female vampire)

The Sad Story of a Vampire (1894) by Count Stenbock

The Occult Sciences - Sketches of the Traditions and Superstitions of Past Times, and the marvels of the Present Day 1855 by Edward Smedley

The Cabinet of Curiosities (Vampires and Vampirism) 1824

Ghost-stories of an Antiquary by MR James 1905 (contains the story of Count Magnus)

Transylvanian Superstitions by Emily Gerard 1885

The Phantom World: the history and philosophy of spirits, apparitions etc by Augustin Calmet (107 mentions of Vampires)

WAKE NOT THE DEAD (Bride of the Grave) by Johann Ludwig Tieck 1826

Great Ghost Stories (contains the Vampire story: What Was It? by Fitz James O'Brien) 1918

Varney the Vampire 1847  (text to pdf only, not an actual scan of the original)

The True Story of A Vampire by Eric Stenbock

Good Lady Ducayne by M. E. Braddon 1896

The wind in the rose-bush and other stories of the supernatural by Mary Freeman 1903 (Contains the story of Luella Miller, an early example of psychological vampire viction)

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain 1916

Lycanthropy - On the Popular Superstitions of Europe, article in The American monthly magazine 1833

Sex and Sex worship by OA Wall 1922 (section on Lycanthropy at page 321)

Fruit Between the Leaves by Andrew Wynter - 1875 (chapter on Were-wolves and Lycanthropy)

A List of Works Relating to Lycanthropy 1920

The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition by Carolina Taylor Stewart 1909

The Book of Were-wolves: Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition by Sabine Baring-Gould 1865

Wagner the Wehr Wolf by George William MacArthur Reynolds 1884

Lays and legends of various nations by William John Thoms 1834 (poor quality)

Phantasmata or, Illusions and Fanaticisms of Protean forms, productive of Great Evils by Richard Robert Madden 1857, Volume 1

Vandover and the Brute by Frank Norris 1914 ("The most revolting story of lycanthropy is in Frank Norris's posthumous novel, Vandover and the Brute. This is a study in soul degeneration...We see a young man, at first sensitive, delicate, and with high ideals, gradually through love of ease and self-indulgence, through taking always the line of least resistance, becoming a moral outcast. The brute that ever strains at the leash in man gains the mastery and the artist soul ends in a bestial creature. Dissipation brings on madness, called by the doctors "lycanthropy-mathesis." In his paroxysms of insanity the wretch thinks that his body is turned into the beast that his soul symbolizes, and runs about his room, naked, four-footed, growling like a jungle animal and uttering harsh, raucous cries of Wolf-wolf!" ~The Supernatural in Modern English fiction By Dorothy Scarborough)

The Phantom Ship by Captain Marryat 1839 (an episode in this novel featurs a demonic femme fatale who transforms from woman to wolf.)

The History of Little Red Riding Hood 1850
Little Red Riding-Hood by Andrew Lang 1912 ("In the fairy-tale Little Red Riding Hood, the figure of the werewolf is more ambiguous and subject to an allegorical or Freudian interpretation. These tales are the inspiration behind modern fiction such as The Company of Wolves (1979) by Angela Carter (filmed as The Company of Wolves (1984) and the film Ginger Snaps" ~ wikipedia)

Hugues, the Wer-Wolf by Sutherland Menzies  1838

Tales of an Antiquary by Richard Thomson 1828 (contains _Wehr-wolf, Legend of the Limousin_)

Light and Darkness - The Mysteries of Life by Catherine Crowe 1850, Volume 1
Light and Darkness - The Mysteries of Life by Catherine Crowe 1850, Volume 2
Light and Darkness - The Mysteries of Life by Catherine Crowe 1850, Volume 3 (contains the story: The Lycanthropist)

The Wolf-Leader by Alaxander Dumas 1904

The Were-Wolf by Clemence Housman 1896

The Door to the Unreal by Gerald Biss 1920

Beasts and Super-beasts by Saki 1914

The Abasement of Nebuchadnezzar, article in Bibliotheca Sacra 1905 (discusses the Lycanthropy of Nebuchadnezzar - who knew the Bible had one of the first possible were-wolves)

Human Animals by Frank Hamel 1915 ("The belief that men can change into animals and animals into men is as old as life itself. It originates in the theory that all things are created from one substance, mind or spirit, which according to accident or design takes a distinctive appearance, to mortal eye, of shape, colour, and solidity. Transformation from one form to another then becomes a thinkable proposition, especially if it be admitted that plastic thought in the spirit world takes on changed forms and conditions more readily than in the world of matter.")

Algonquin legends of New England by Charles G Leland 1884 ("In the beginning of things, men were as animals and animals as men; how this was, no one knows. But it is told that all were at first men, and as they gave themselves up to this and that desire, and to naught else, they became beasts. But before this came to pass, they could change to one or the other form; yet even as men there was always something which showed what they were.")

Werwolves by Elliott O'Donnell 1912 (Werwolves and Exorcism, How to Become a Werwolf, Werwolves Vampires and Ghouls etc)

Dogmas and Ritual - Transmutations by Eliphas Levi ("I propose to speak of lycanthropy, or the nightly changing of men into wolves, so celebrated in our country night-watches by stories of werewolves; stories which are so well attested that in order to explain them, incredulous science has recourse to furious manias and to travesties into animals.")

Curious Creatures in Zoology by John Ashton 1890 (has a chapter on werewolves)

Curiosities of Indo-European tradition and folk-lore by Walter Kelly 1863 (has a chapter on werewolves)

The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction by Dorothy Scarborough PhD 1917

Plus you get:

Modern Vampirism: Its Dangers and How to Avoid Them by A Osborne Eaves 1901

The Vampire, article in The Theosophist 1891

Supernatural Stories, article in New monthly magazine 1849

The Magic of the Middle Ages by Viktor Rydberg 1879

A Book of Marvels by HC Adams

Fenris the Wolf - a Tragedy by Percy MacKaye 1905

Myths from many lands by Eva March Tappan 1907 (How the Wolf Fenris was Changed)

A Were-Wolf Story, article in The Living Age 1905

An introduction to folk-lore by Marian Cox 1895

The Room in the Tower by EF Benson 1912
"And then a hand was laid on the side of my neck, and close beside my ear I heard quick-taken, eager breathing. Yet I knew that this thing, though it could be perceived by touch, by smell, by eye and by ear, was still not of this earth, but something that had passed out of the body and had power to make itself manifest."

Folklore, Parallels and Coincidences, article written in 1897 which discusses the Indian Bhuta Vampire.

Unusual, Ghostly, Superstitious, article in Current Opinion which discusses the Vrykolakas (Greek vampires) 1902

Macedonian folklore by By George Frederick Abbot 1903

La Bas, also known as Down There or The Damned by JK Huysmans 1895

Metamorphosis of the Vampire plus The Vampire by Charles Baudelaire 1857 (these poems were initially included in his "Flowers of Evil" but these 2 works were removed because they were considered offensive).

Christabel, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1907 (a lengthy poem written in 1773, a vampiric motif "ranked as one of the great early examples of vampire literature." ~The Vampire Encyclopedia

Haunted Houses: Tales of the Supernatural, with Some Account of Hereditary Curses and Family Legends (features the Croglin Grange Vampire) By Charles George Harper 1907

Stories by Charles Gautier 1908 (contains "Clarimonde" known also as The Dead Lover and as The Beautiful Vampire)

Bluebeard - An Account of Comorre the Cursed and Gilles de Rais by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (one or two pages unreadable) [Gilles de Rais was one of the most notorious murderers in history, an historic vampire)

The Poems of Goethe 1891 - has the Bride of Corinth, a sort of a corpse bride

On Vampyrism, article in The New Monthly 1823

Demons, Incubi, Vampyres, article in The Recreative review 1821

Sketches of an imposture, deception, and credulity by RA Davenport 1840 (has a chapter on Vampyrism)

The Great Book of Magical Art by Lauron William De Laurence 1915 ("Vampirism. Witch Craft and Black Art, Their Dangers and How to Avoid them")

The Vampire - A Roumanian Gypsy Story, article in Journal of the Gypsy Lore 1891

Gypsy folk-tales by Francis H Groome 1899

The ancient English romance of William and the Werwolf by Frederick Madden 1832

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft by Sir Walter Scott 1887 ("Instances occur in De Lancre's book of the trial and con-
demnation of persons accused of the crime of lycanthropy...")

Wild and Weird: Tales of Imagination and Mystery By Sir Gilbert Campbell 1889

The philosophy of mystery by Walter C Dendy 1841
("In the woods of Limousin, in France, the belief in the power of changing from men to wolves is still prevalent. The Loup-garoux, or Wehr-wolf, was thought
to have been in league with Satan.")

On the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions with an account of mesmerism by Herbert Mayo 1851

Supernatural Illusions by P. I. Begbie 1851

The Black Douglas by SR Crockett 1899

Second book of tales (The Werewolf) by Eugene Field 1896

Teutonic Mythology, Volume 1 by Jakob Grimm 1880

Teutonic Mythology, Volume 2 by Jakob Grimm 1880

Teutonic Mythology, Volume 3 by Jakob Grimm 1880

Teutonic Mythology, Volume 4 by Jakob Grimm 1880

Myths and myth-makers by John Fiske 1900

Werewolves and Swan-Maidens, article in The Atlantic Monthly 1871

The Book of Witches by Oliver Madox Hueffer 1908
 gdixierose