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John A. Keel
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JADOO Paperback – January 1, 2013

by John A. Keel (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 119 ratings
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The first book by the author of "The Mothman Prophecies." This new edition contains material never before published. Someone, we know not who, once called Jadoo "the greatest book ever written on the black magic of the Orient." But we do know that there will never again be another book like it. Jadoo, a Hindi word meaning "Black Magic," captures a world that is now lost to us—the strange, dark, mysterious world that was once called the "Orient." This story of a real-life Indiana Jones of the 1950s named John Keel contains everything but a trip to Venus in a flying saucer--a subject our newsman/explorer would become famous for a decade later. In Egypt, the fearless Keel was cursed by a mummy and befriended members of a strange snake-charming cult. In Iraq, he played Russian roulette with a notorious desert bandit and lived among the Yezidi devil-worshippers. Later, in India, he was buried alive and discovered the secret of the Indian rope trick, which he then performed for incredulous reporters in New Delhi. And in a riveting finale, he chased the Abominable Snowman through the little known Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim before being unceremoniously booted out of Singapore for being "an undesirable alien."

"One of the most traveled and imaginative raconteurs since Baron Munchausen." -- San Francisco Examiner

"Here is a fireside adventure with a chill in it.” — Buffalo Evening News

“A fabulous tour of Egypt, the Middle East, India, and Tibet." -- Hartford Times

"... a combination of cliff-hanging experiences with serious probing for the bizarre, the secretive, and the enigmatic." -- Kirkus

Born on March 25, 1930, in Hornell, New York, John A. Keel was keenly interested in magic and writing from an early age. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War on the staff of the American Forces Network in Frankfurt, Germany, he worked as a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Egypt. Then, in 1954, he gave up his day job and set off on a life of travel and adventure, attempting to support himself with his writing. The travels and encounters he relates in this book, which ranged from Egypt to Singapore, cover about one year. Using articles he had written for the men’s magazines, Keel strung together a manuscript, which he originally entitled "Pattern for Adventure," while living in Barcelona. The book appeared as JADOO from a New York publisher in 1957, and he promoted it by performing a snake-charming act in a pet store window in New York City. Keel kept on writing for newspapers and magazines, as well as radio and television outlets, and ended up publishing a dozen books in his lifetime. He popularized the term “Men In Black” and coined the term “ultraterrestrials” to describe UFO occupants. Keel’s best known work is "The Mothman Prophecies," an account of his investigation into sightings in West Virginia of a huge, winged creature called the Mothman that culminates with the collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River in 1967. The film based on this book and starring Richard Gere was released in 2002. Keel died on July 3, 2009.
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  1. Print length
    309 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 2013
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1933665734
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1933665733
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most traveled and imaginative raconteurs since Baron Munchausen." - San Francisco Examiner

"Here is a fireside adventure with a chill in it." - Buffalo Evening News

"A fabulous tour of Egypt, the Middle East, India, and Tibet." - Hartford Times

"... a combination of cliff-hanging experiences with serious probing for the bizarre, the secretive, and the enigmatic." -Kirkus

"...one of the funniest and most fascinating travel books ever written." - Louis Proud, Mysterious Universe

"If you want to learn about what the man who made Mothman famous (and who, in turn, was made famous by it) was doing long before Point Pleasant, West Virginia dragged him, magnet-like, into its creepy confines, then buy and read Jadoo. Yes, Jadoo is a book that is saturated by tale after tale of the paranormal. But, it's also a story that makes it clear why life is to be lived, loved, savored and experienced to the full, no matter where it takes us, and no matter the outcome. Keel understood the importance of all that." -Nick Redfern, Mysterious Universe


About the Author

Born on March 25, 1930, in Hornell, New York, John A. Keel was keenly interested in magic and writing from an early age. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War on the staff of the American Forces Network in Frankfurt, Germany, he worked as a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Egypt. Then, in 1954, he gave up his day job and set off on a life of travel and adventure, attempting to support himself with his writing. The travels and encounters he relates in this book, which ranged from Egypt to Singapore, cover about one year. Using articles he had written for the men's magazines, Keel strung together a manuscript, which he originally entitled Pattern for Adventure, while living in Barcelona. The book appeared as Jadoo from a New York publisher in 1957, and he promoted it by performing a snake-charming act in a pet store window in New York City. Keel kept on writing for newspapers and magazines, as well as radio and television outlets, and ended up publishing a dozen books in his lifetime. He popularized the term "Men In Black" and coined the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants. Keel's best known work is The Mothman Prophecies, an account of his investigation into sightings in West Virginia of a huge, winged creature called the Mothman that culminates with the collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River in 1967. The film based on this book and starring Richard Gere was released in 2002. Keel died on July 3, 2009.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anomalist Books; Revised ed. edition (January 1, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 309 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933665734
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933665733
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 119 ratings

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John A. Keel

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
119 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Brooke Perez
5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTELY LOVE!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2024
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Big John Keel fan, & while this one is very different than Mothman type of books, it's awesome. What a life he had! Very interesting & his usual wit & charm.
PS- imagine how freaky to read in 2024-when Keel mentions an Egyptian mystic- in the 1950s- predicting WW3 & beyond beginning in 2024! 😳 Spooooky.
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Leroy Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars A fun book
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2023
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Some parts of the book seem exaggerated, but it’s a really fun book to read. One of my favorite John Keel books.
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tom_in_co
4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book. Worst proofreading ever.
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2022
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John Keel is one of my favorite writers. As other reviewers have noted, this is an extremely well-written work, but not typical of Keel's later work. It really is a classic of a lost age. Definitely 5 stars for content.

I wish I could say the same about the quality of production of the Kindle ebook. WORST PROOFREADER EVER. Sentences are not formatted properly as words run together. Many misspellings. Total bummer to read. If this doesn't bother you, then you're golden. For $10 I expected a much better product. Anomalist Books should be ashamed. -2 stars for their poor offering.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Jadoo gives you a glimpse into a time and culture about to be erased by a dictatorship in 1950's Egypt
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2018
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This is as I remember it the first time I had a copy back in the 1970's. With John Keel's personal experiences in the Middle East to the Himalayas. Fascinating since the modernization that was going on was eliminating the curious and ages old of that region at a furious pace by a a button down dictatorship in the 1950's.

The book is old, but in very good shape. Still readable. The author is known for later more esoteric fare like "Strange Creatures from Time and Space" and "The Mothman Prophecies" about the bizarre phenomena he suggests is behind all the weirdness. A very Earth bound phenomena.

Keel was a news reporter and yet he writes like a novel with him in the first person. Because he was there.
5 people found this helpful
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John in NYC
5.0 out of 5 stars Memoirs of a Professional Cliff-Hanger
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2015
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In my opinion, this is John Keel's finest work (and that is saying a lot). Keel takes us across the middle east and Asia in his search for unexplained mysteries. These range from the Indian rope trick to the Abominable Snowman of Nepal with a counterfeit mummy maker thrown in. Unlike college professors or trained scientists, Keel looked at things through the skeptical, street smart eyes of a man who himself is an expert magician and who knew what to look for when dealing with (and exposing) con artists. He wrote in the style that made the now extinct men's magazine such as Saga, Argosy, and True so much fun to read, but at times, such as when relating how he had to say goodbye to the woman he loved, he is amazingly tender and sensitive. Written in 1955, the hidden world of Jadoo (black magic) that Keel examined has long since vanished, but luckily, Keel's work has not.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Jadoo Weaves A Great Spell!
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2017
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I love this read! A wonderful look at the Mid East and India of the 1950s before Westernization set in. Keels writing style is as if he is telling the story personally, that you are in the room right there with him. A master story teller. He is still remembered in Nepal yet today as " the young Western white guy who came to the Himalayas to learn magic". Jadoo mesmorizes one with its tales of close calls, explainations for certain tricks and the realization that not all can be explained by Western means.( nor should it be).Highly recommend it to adventurers of all ages!
5 people found this helpful
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Douglss Gotham
4.0 out of 5 stars A very good account of 1950's era middle east culture
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017
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I enjoyed it and it was well written. This is Keel's first book and he is honest and open about his experiences.
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She Who Loves Books
5.0 out of 5 stars I Highly Recommend This
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014
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Jadoo is the most interesting book I've read in a long time. Mr. Keel not only travels though out the East looking for magic, he performs the magic act whenever possible (although not always successfully). He also tells us how to do the tricks he uncovers. I now know how to do the Great Indian Rope Trick and many others.

His narrative is very honest. He is broke for much of his travels and was booted out of Singapore for being an undesirable alien. He came close to death many times. He meets people who gave him the last bit of their food, and he met someone who forced him to play Russian Roulette. He tells everything as he sees it.

I've been recommending this book to everyone I know.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

DiemensionX
5.0 out of 5 stars The start of something
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019
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Great book, life before things got really strange for mister keel, there was a part in the book that hinted to me what would be happening later in his life. If your looking for ufos and flying creature l you wont find much in this book but you will find an amazing adventure that Im not sure how he survived, there is some yeti stuff in the book and an insite into magic of the middle east and Asia. Great book and after this his books just keep getting better and stranger, a great invetigator with an open mind.
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susan
5.0 out of 5 stars jadoo
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2013
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very pleased with this book as i have been looking for a new copy of this for years after reading it before. Arrived quickly and well packaged. Would use this compan again.
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Dave
4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2023
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This was John A Keel’s very first book, and recounts his adventures from Egypt to Singapore. He is perhaps best known for his book ’The Mothman Propheccies’
Written in the early ‘50’s, this book portrays a world far different from today - the title relates to an Indian term for ‘Black Magic’, which at the time of Keel’s writing was vanishing as the modern world spread across the globe, and his search for the truth forms the basis of his adventures recounted in this book.
Keel’s writing is easy and engaging, and his adventures are at times fascinating, and at other times, read like the script of an ‘Indiana Jones’ film.
Was it all true? It’s up to the reader to make up their own minds, but whatever they decide, this is a very interesting book, and provides a fascinating window on a time that although within living memory for some, has now passed.
It’s a very interesting read, and for me, worth it for the opportunity to look back to the world of the early 1950’s in the areas of his travels
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Mark Devall
5.0 out of 5 stars Top book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2019
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A fun read
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saxoclariman
5.0 out of 5 stars BUY THIS FOR INSIGHT INTO WHAT IS ALMOST A LOST WORLD TODAY
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2016
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very well written and an ideal bedtime read. Unique.
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