BEYOND THE STRANGE by Eric Norman

Here's Brad Steiger moonlighting under the "Eric Norman" pseudonym for yet another Popular Library entry, this one taking us BEYOND THE STRANGE! Steiger (and sometimes-collaborator Warren Smith) had been cranking out these "strange" volumes for Popular Library since at least 1966, and by this point in 1972 the formula was wearing thin. Oak Island, the Hope Diamond, the Flying Dutchman: these are only a few of the many, many familiar Forteana we're faced with here, along with Steiger's usual assortment of glib ghost stories and uncanny predictions. There's even yet another chapter on wacky folk remedies. It's all pretty limp and you get the feeling Steiger had perfected his formula for writing these to a science, with detrimental effect on the final product. Reach into the archives, shuffle some papers around, and blammo: another book for the ages!

One entry truly deserving of the hyperbolic title is the Sedlec Ossuary of the Czech Republic, "estimated to contain the skeletons of 40,000 and 70,000 people whose bones have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel." More true bizarre tales like this would have been good. The sailing stones of Death Valley make an appearance too, and while they're not the most bloodcurdling saga they're appreciated all the same for breaking up the monotony. Nice to see Morag the lake monster as well. Seems like Nessie gets all the press!

The "Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms" within
the Sedlec Ossuary, per wikipedia

One other bright spot: frequent Steiger source and psychic Doc Anderson predicts the capture of Bigfoot in 1979! Funny enough, there was a film released in '79 with that exact title, but it came from Wisconsin, not Oregon as Anderson predicts. Psychic predictions are easy filler, and they can be fun too, like Mother Shipton's declaration that the world will end in 1991! That probably seemed like a safe bet back in the 1500s. Steiger finishes things off with a chapter about one Joseph Donnelly, "spiritualist seer" from Sebring FL. Donnelly has a bunch of doom and gloom, especially for NYC which is going to see rising crime (an obvious guess in '72) and a wave of assassinations of Jewish politicians! Sheesh, sometimes you get the idea that these psychics get off on foretelling disaster. 

 

In any event, stay strange out there!

Popular Library, 1972