The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings [Paperback]

Brad Steiger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

With 250 entries, this filmography and resource is the encyclopedic guide to all things lycanthropic and a fascinating compendium of comparative mythology and folklore. Delving into the 15th century to uncover the origins of the werewolf legend, it is an eye-opening, blood-pounding tour through the ages, landing on the doorstep of creatures like hirsute mass-murderer Charles Manson and canine-directed Son of Sam. A helpful chronology of lycanthropic activities dates back 140,000 years, to the first mixing of human and lupine blood.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brad Steiger's magnum opus, a labor of deep scholarship elegantly written. As a reference source, it is invaluable for anyone interested in pursuing the werewolf."  —Ancient American magazine

"From A to Z, Brad Steiger presents a true encyclopedia of werewolfism, a reference masterpiece, overflowing with fascinating information to make readers think and shudder."  —Fate magazine

"It is with reverence to its awesome scope that we recommend it to anyone even marginally interested in the topic"  —Rue Morgue

"If werewolves, hairy shape-shifting monsters, and silver-bullets are your thing, then you're in for a big, big treat! An excellent, fully updated, and massively expanded, edition of The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings is most definitely a title to sink your teeth into!" —www.mania.com

"Another good spell-binding Brad Steiger classic! This book will be hard to put down once you get started." —Alternate Perceptions (September 2011) 

"Provides detailed information on a wide variety of mythical creatures and the culture surrounding them." —Book News (October 2011) 

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

From movies like An American Werewolf in London to the best-selling game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, to folklore and case histories, The Werewolf Book is the encyclopedic guide to all things lycanthropic. In this spectacular first edition, Brad Steiger takes you back to the 15th century to uncover the origins of the werewolf legend. From there he leads you on an eye-opening world tour through the ages to the modern-day monstrous duality of creatures like cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Does the wolf live within each of us? Learn how the legends of the werewolf can mirror the animal that exists in each and every one of us. Some have given in to these primal animal urges. Find out why. The answers lie within....

The Werewolf Book, the perfect companion to Visible Ink's best-selling Vampire Book, is the eagerly anticipated work resulting from Mr. Steiger's lifelong studies. It contains nearly 250 entries, a filmography, and a resource guide with web sites. More than 125 photographs (including 16 pages in color), ranging from folk art to movie stills, will have you hair standing on end. Shape-changing topics include:

* Classic werewolf movies
* Slaying the werewolf
* Children raised by wolves
* Serial killers
* Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
* Incubus
* Lon Chaney, Jr.
* The Moon and Mars
* Eddie Munster and Wolfie
* Marquis de Sade
* Loup-garou and other creatures from around the world
* Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman

The Werewolf Book, Brad Steiger's homage to the beast within, provides a full moon of fact and fiction for the lycanthrophile in all of us.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press; paperback / softback edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578590787
• ISBN-13: 978-1578590780
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The word is blah, May 26, 2004

By 

Dr. J. Rupert Bailey (Canada, Belize, France and most recently Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings (Paperback)

Blah, padded, bloated, vague, rambling and pointless are all words that readily jump to mind after reading Steiger's attempt at penning a werewolf encyclopedia. Steiger has pulled exactly the same trick that inadequate students use on term papers. He substitutes length for research, and he does it by adding extraneous sentences, paragraphs, and adjectives, as well as randomly bringing up every topic that might possibly be seen as related to the assignment, and then subsequently rambling on about that subject. Even when Steiger is discussing werewolves, cat people, coyote people, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde or other shape-shifting beings, he regurgitates a handful of the simplest facts concerning said subject and then plays a game of seeing how long he can ramble on without adding any new facts to the mix. The writing varies in quality, but too much of it is either terribly vague or rambling yet pompous without actually saying much. At 397 pages in length, one would expect that the subject would eventually be covered adequately, but such is far from the case. It seems that everything other than shape-shifting beings ended up being irresistible fodder for Steiger's research agenda.
Let us examine one section and the nature of this tome shall readily show itself. In the "A" section alone, out of twelve entries, Steiger includes six highly questionable entries, namely three paragraphs about an English Abbot who claimed he found a demon corpse (it was all black and twisted because it had been struck by lightning, but nobody said it had shape-shifted), three pages about the "Abominable Snowman" (a subject that is redundantly brought up no less than five times in the remainder of the book under alternative names such as yeti, yet Steiger fails to establish any link, however slight, to prove, as he states, that "Folklore has cast these mysterious monsters as werewolves..." [this quote from page 4]), two pages about aliens, three pages about the almasti (a Russian yeti), a three-paragraph biography of Evelyn Ankers (an actress who played a minor part in one werewolf movie), and two paragraphs about Anubis (the jackal-headed Egyptian god, whom Steiger rambles about in an exceptionally pointless way). Thus, fully half of these entries for the "A" section have so little to do with werewolves that one wonders why Steiger even bothered. Ah, yes, because he was being paid!
A short perusal of the table of contents brings to mind many other entries that made me desire that this was a term paper, and I Steiger's professor, that I might give him an "F." The entry on blood is terribly pointless. It would be more appropriate to a treatise on vampires, yet a more dedicated author could have done a better job with this topic choice than Steiger did. His rambling jumps from one subject to another, including the historical tale behind the Jewish Passover, Native American rituals to appease blood-shedding, and Steiger's own (completely unfounded) ruminations about fossil evidence, ancient humans, green leaves, and wolfskin-wearing cannibals. I shall spare you the exact details. The next galling entry that leaps out at my eye is titled "Dahmer, Jeffrey." Despite the fact that this famous serial killer was never labeled a werewolf, Steiger emphatically states that he indubitably was one. The evidence? Dahmer was unusually quiet during his trial, therefore he was possessed by a demon-beast, and ergo he was a werewolf. The entry itself contains nothing more than a hurried summary of the basic facts and Steiger's bizarre rambling. Numerous entries on other cannibals and serial killers all follow the same line.
I could go on, but I being to sicken myself as I look over this waste of a book, and I believe you have the point. Don't buy this piece of trash unless you are a dedicated fan of this author or you absolutely must have every single book that is published on this topic. Looking over the irresolutely cheerful reviews below mine, spaced evenly every few days, each praising this book as highly as I have ever seen a book praised and using the same style and phrases, I cannot help but conclude that Steiger himself has been writing these reviews in volume so as to push his book in this venue. I regret that little can be done to impede such cheating, and can only hope that my review will stay on top for a week or two before a new flood of phony reviews submerges it.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too many serial killers, October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings (Paperback)

_The Werewolf Book_ is entertaining, but I am going to have to go with the "too many serial killers" critics. I can understand Steiger including one entry about serial killers, but the book seems overrun with inappropriate information. I can even understand including entries for killers labelled "The Werewolf Killer" or whatnot, but many of the killers featured (such as Albert Fish or Charles Manson) have no connection whatsoever to the subject at hand, werewolves. Human monsters should only be included when they have a connection to the shapeshifting beast of film and folklore. Steiger's personal beliefs linking unconnected serial killers to the werewolf legend should be confined to the introduction, or perhaps an entry of their own. What's truly annoying is that more appropriate information has been excluded.

42 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Encyclopedia of Deviants and Serial Killers, September 2, 2000

By 

John A. Kuczma "RogueUlfric" (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings (Paperback)

The introduction to "The Werewolf Book" states, "We have met the Werewolves and they are us." Unfortunately, this pompous, pretentious volume does little or nothing to support that statement.

Less than 20% of the entries in "The Werewolf" Book have anything to do with non-fictional lycanthropes. There are multiple articles on movies, actors, actresses, various aspects of the paranormal, mythological monsters other than weres, and an almost nauseatingly complete reciting of infamous serial murderers. However, usable data relating to the phenomenon of lycanthropy and werewolves is conspicuously scarce.

There can be no doubt that Mr Steiger is very accomplished in the conducting of research and compiling of data. It would have been more useful were he accomplished in sticking to his stated subject.

As a brief reference to occult/gothic/mythological terminology, "The Werewolf Book" has some value. As a study of the history of the werewolf phenomenon, it is useless.

Not recommended.