This book takes the reader on a vast, alphabetic tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the blood-sucking undead. From Vlad the Impaler to Barnabas Collins to Dracula and Lestat, it supplies nearly 500 exhaustive essays illustrated with more than 250 photos. A very thorough unearthing of the vampire through the ages, this guide relies on a collection of 2,000 titles on vampires, digging deep into the lore, the myths, and the reported realities of vampires and vampire legends from around the world.
J. Gordon Melton is the Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at the Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, and the Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion also based in Waco, Texas.
He is the author of more than 35 books, the great majority reference works or scholarly texts in American religious history, including the "Encyclopedia of American Religions" (eighth edition, 2009), and most recently "Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances and Spiritual Commemorations" (2011). He has also written several reference books in Dracula and vampire studies including the award winning "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead" (third edition 2010).
