David J Skal: 4 books
Claude Rains
An Actor's Voice
Language: English
Release Date: October 1, 2009
Late in Claude Rains's distinguished career, a reverent film journalist wrote that Rains "was as much a cinematic institution as the medium itself." Given his childhood speech impediments and his origins in a destitute London neighborhood, the ascent of Claude Rains (1889--1967) to the stage...
Halloween
The History of America's Darkest Holiday
Language: English
Release Date: May 16, 2016
Wonderfully well-written, outrageous, and provocative." — Booklist.
"Entertaining … and scholarly … Like a bag of Halloween candy, the book is a lot of fun." — Boston Globe.
"Fans of cultural history will devour each chapter … like a toothsome treat." — Christian...
by David J. Skal
Language: English
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: October 4, 2016
**A 2017 Edgar Award Finalist
A revelatory biography exhumes the haunted origins of the man behind the immortal myth, bringing us "the closest we can get to understanding [Bram Stoker] and his iconic tale" (The New Yorker).**
In this groundbreaking portrait of the man who birthed...
Hollywood Gothic
The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen
Language: English
Release Date: October 18, 2004
The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. Most of us can recite without prompting the salient characteristics of the vampire: sleeping by day...