COVER UPDATES: ATLANTIS RISING and BEYOND EARTH

Pretty as a picture, a painted cover for Brad Steiger's Atlantis Rising, from Sphere Books, 1973.

And a sinister looking 1976 reprint for Ralph and Judy Blum's Beyond Earth!

GHOSTS IN IRISH HOUSES by James Reynolds

New year, more new (old) books! And another entry in the see-through ghost gals cover gallery, along with a somber blurb that skeptics will either be petrified or fully converted by the stories within ... which is a bit beside the point as the 22 tales within don't offer themselves as anything other than folklore. Perhaps this 1968 reprint by the Paperback Library was trying to fit in among the then-current crop of scientific ghost books which promised hard evidence and PROOF of the other side. Not to say there aren't some real corkers here, selected by author James Reynolds out of over 200 (!) stories he catalogued from the Emerald Isle. This title has enjoyed frequent reprints through the years, a testament to the evocative stories from those "richly imaginative" Irish!

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Paperback Library, 1968 (original pub. 1947)

HAUNTED HOUSES FOR THE MILLIONS by Susy Smith

Readers beware, you're in for a scare! So says the ad copy for this volume from the prolific Susy Smith, although the many spirits within seem more cozy and creaky than outright terrifying ...

The chapter on Ghosts, Hauntings, and Famous People features some heavy hitters such as "the King of the Ghouls" Vincent Price who details some family history with ghosts, as well as Berlin bombshell actress Elke Sommer who lives with a drunken bastard of a ghost in her Beverly Hills home! The recently departed Olivia de Havilland and Honeymooners headliner Aubrey Meadows are some other celebrities who provide spooky ghost stories for Ms. Smith.

Here's to more and better things in the new year, and damn the Deros!

Dell Publishing, 1969 (original pub. 1967)

APPARITIONS AND GHOSTS by Andrew MacKenzie

Going by the cover art, a more accurate title would be attractive apparitions and gauzy gals! Author Andrew MacKenzie was no slouch when it came to the other side, serving as a vice president for the venerable Society for Psychical Research (founded 1882) and putting out numerous books on the paranormal ... as well as an undoubtedly useful 1978 volume titled Voting in Local Elections In New Zealand! However, despite copious assertions to the contrary this title has little in the way of scientific content, instead delivering the same old kind of spooky ghost stories that made up the majority of the genre. Not bad, mind you, but definitely an example of style over substance.

Popular Library, 1971

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Beast in the East

More creature cartography from Donald MacCallum, current to 1977 sightings. This map has markers for bigfoot bigshots Momo the Missouri Monster and the Boggy Creek Creature of Fouke, Arkansas ... plus many more apemen lost to the archives.

From John Green's Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, courtesy Hancock House, 2006 (original pub. 1981).

COSMIC DEBRIS: Zodiac and Palmistry '77

At last! A wooden Ouija board! Though the Touch Palmistry Game looks far more interesting:

And Kreskin too!

The podcast Lunatics Radio Hour have episodes covering the game and its creator Maxine Fiel, one of those personalities who was a fixture of 70s pop culture but has the barest digital footprint nowadays. She passed away in April 2020 according to her obituary, at the incredible age of 96. 

From Fate, Volume 23 - Number 12, December 1977.

 

THE U.F.O. INVESTIGATOR, Jan-Feb 1967

Volume 111, Number 11 of NICAP's own in-house newsletter The U.F.O. Investigator, covering January and February of 1967. The books section features an ambivalent review of Coral and Jim Lorenzen's Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion From Outer Space. The Lorenzens and their UFO group APRO regularly published UFO occupant reports with a gleeful credulity that chafed the more staid NICAP. Also featured is a Belmont/Tower Books cheapie by L. Jerome Stanton, Flying Saucers: Hoax or Reality? Immediately following this is an announcement that contactee Daniel Fry has had his NICAP membership revoked!

Available to read and download at archive dot org. Sourced from the James Smith Noel Collection:

The Noel Collection was the life's work of Mr. James Smith Noel. It is one of the largest private collections of antiquarian books, prints, and maps in the United States and is currently on permanent loan to Louisiana State University Shreveport. The books are still being explored--the majority are uncataloged and thus somewhat unknown, but they are believed to number between 200,000 and 250,000 volumes.

Published by NICAP, 1967