Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires [Hardcover]

Michael E. Bell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Forget Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula. In nineteenth-century New England another sort of vampire was relentlessly ravishing the populace, or so it was believed by many rural communities suffering the plague of tuberculosis. Indeed, as this fascinating book shows, the vampire of folk superstition figures significantly in the attempt of early Americans to reasonably explain and vanquish the dreaded affliction then known as consumption. In gripping narrative detail, folklorist Michael E. Bell reconstructs a distant world, where on March 17, 1892, three corpses were exhumed from a Rhode Island cemetery. One of them, Mercy Brown, who had succumbed to consumption, appeared to have turned over in her grave. Mercy’s family cut out her heart, which still held clots of blood, burned it on a nearby rock, and fed the ashes to her ailing brother. To Mercy’s community she had become a vampire living a spectral existence and consuming the vitality of her siblings. From documents written as early as 1790 to a recent conversation with a descendant of Mercy Brown, Bell investigates twenty cases in which the vampiric dead were exhumed to save the ailing living. He also explores a widespread folk tradition that has survived generations, as ordinary people today strive to battle extraordinary diseases like Ebola or AIDS with a deeply rooted belief in their power to heal themselves. “Bell’s absorbing account is ... a major contribution to the study of New England folk beliefs.”—Boston Globe “Filled with ghostly tales, glowing corpses, rearranged bones, visits to hidden graveyards.... This is a marvelous book.”—Providence Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The "vampire" threat here has little in common with your garden-variety Dracula, the fanged menace of Transylvania; these quiet apparitions are in some ways more macabre. In historical New England, consumption claimed thousands of lives. When several family members fell in quick succession, some suspected interference from the grave the "dead" extending their own lives by claiming those of others. Corpses were disinterred. Hearts were extracted and, if found to contain "living," or fresh, blood, subjected to an elaborate cremation and exorcism. Bell, a folklorist, pursues this grisly tradition one that still survives in legend throughout the Eastern seaboard and records his observations here. Despite tantalizing chapter headings ("I am Waiting and Watching for You," "Ghoulish, Wolfish Shapes"), Bell strives laudably for responsible scholarship, and the book is as much a critique of myth transmission as it is a tale of one man's vampire hunt. He goes to great lengths to forestall and undo exaggerations of his findings, advocating a very qualified and moderate use of the word "vampire" and transcribing oral interviews so painstakingly they can be difficult to read. But Bell himself is a talented stylist, and academics working in folklore and myth will find his study a refreshing departure from the dry fieldwork ordinarily on offer.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

Filled with ghostly tales, glowing corpses. . .This is a marvelous book, which can only disturb our own darker dreams. -- Providence Journal

Major contribution to the study of New England folk beliefs. . . . Give[s] deeper and more somber meaning to . . . rural New England. -- The Boston Globe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; First Edition edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786708999
• ISBN-13: 978-0786708994
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,673,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent New England Folklore, August 28, 2003

By 

D. W. Casey (Sturbridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires (Paperback)

Believe it or not -- and after reading "Food for the Dead" you will indeed believe it -- Vampires are not a literary invention of the nineteenth century, but are rooted in the folklore of many cultures -- including, of all places, rural Rhode Island.

Of course, they did not call them vampires, but the folklore is so similar to vampirism that it is immediately recognizable as the same mythic type.

Briefly: Michael Bell explores a practice that occurred in at least three documented accounts (his research into the archives and newspapers of the time is superb) of the families of tuberculosis victims ("consumption") digging up a recently deceased family member to ensure that the dead family member was indeed dead, and was not preying on the living. Part of the New England folklore concerning consumption was that when family members started dying of the disease in succession, it meant that the first victim was feeding on the living -- and the proof of this was to dig up the deceased person's heart to ensure that it did not contain "fresh" blood -- sure evidence that the dead person was not entirely dead.

Bell finds the practice was not limited just to Rhode Island, but indeed had passed into the folklore of Connecticut and Vermont as well, and the belief persisted among rural folk as late as the 1890s.

Bell discusses many issues in the book, including the origins of the folklore, the prejudice of city people towards rural people (newspaper accounts of the period are pretty harsh in their condemnation of the practice), the history of tuberculosis, the need to protect small cemeteries from vandals and curiosity seekers, and even how some of the source material of the myth found its way into the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.

The book is a very thorough and well researched, and handled sympathetically. Well worth reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Correction to previous review, January 4, 2004

By 

Kathryn Fisher "bonnypoppet" (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires (Paperback)

A note about the reviewer who stated Michael Bell explores graveyards with a camera and tape recorder, like an aspiring Art Bell wanna be.

If you read this book, which I strongly recommed for anyone who is looking for a fresh perspective on the tapestry of folklore and legends, you will discover Michael Bell is neither superstitous nor prone to fantasy. He playfully mocks those who lurk in churchyards, hoping to record a whisper from the grave and give themselves a thrill at the same time. "Food for the Dead" seeks to explore how concepts like "modern" vampirism and other legends develop and exist, using genealogical research and good sense. If you're looking for a good scare and juicy ghost stories, keep shopping. In search of a fascinating read? You found it, enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vampires? Who needs vampires?, June 18, 2003

By 

Eric Turowski (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires (Hardcover)

Wow! Next to "Vampires, Burial and Death," probably the best non-speculative look at "real" vampires I've read.
They didn't use the word "vampire" back in the day. The ritual (described in detail by Michael Bell) for the treatment of consumption involved a little bit of exhumation, perhaps some dismemberment, maybe some cannibalism, stuff like that. Today, it would be tough to imagine your entire family dying one by one, and a local elder saying, "Hey, if you dig up Betsy, the first one who died, you may be able to save the rest of your family. Here's how ..."
The most interesting aspect of this book is that it gives an indirect sampling of what folklorists actually do. All the research, detective work, footwork and interviewing seems a lot more substantial than just collecting urban legends or whatever. Buy it!