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Back
in print for the first time in decades!
The
Unidentified and
Creatures of the Outer Edge,
the
classic early works of Jerome
Clark and Loren Coleman,
now in a
special double edition
with a new introduction by the authors.
The Unidentified finds the
links that
connect supernatural folklore, religious visions, cryptozoology, and
modern-day UFO stories. It documents episodes from the fringes of human
experience and exposes what they may tell us about ourselves and the
strange world we live in, where things - whether fairies, ghosts,
divine apparitions, or ostensible extraterrestrials - may be even more
mysterious than they seem.
Creatures of
the Outer Edge
surveys the
cryptozoologically bountiful decade of the 1970s (and more) with
accounts of Mothman, Owlmen, Thunderbirds, Phantom Panthers, Devil
Dogs, Texas Big Birds, and, yes, of course, Bigfoot. Some of the
individually "named" local Bigfoot creatures first appeared in this
book, including Momo (Missouri Monster), Lake Worth Monster,
Murphysboro Mud Monster, the Enfield Thing, El Reno Chicken Man, Noxie
Monster, Navajo's Skinwalkers, and Yukon's Bushman. The book also
introduced the now-iconic Dover Demon for the first time to the general
public.
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THE UNIDENTIFIED &
CREATURES OF THE
OUTER EDGE
The Early Works of
Jerome Clark
and Loren Coleman
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 1933665114
516 pages, $19.95
Order
from AMAZON here:
or from
Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore |
Table of Contents
Introduction to this Double Edition
1
Book One: The Unidentified
An Introductory Note
8
UFOland: Other Worlds and the Otherworld
9
Fairyland: The Magical Impulse
45
Voices from Heaven: The Religious Impulse
93
The Airships: The Technological Impulse
131
UFOs: The Mystery in the Machine
165
Paraufology: Understanding the
Incomprehensible 225
Selected Bibliography
251
A Note on UFO and Fortean Publications
261
Index
263
Book Two: Creatures of the Outer Edge
Introduction
11
Chapter One: Mystery Animals
15
Chapter Two: The Bigfeet
28
Chapter Three: The Manimals
51
Chapter Four: Phantom Cats and Dogs
117
Chapter Five: Things with Wings
165
Chapter Six: Phantasms
195
Epilogue: A Year Filled with Monsters
208
Bibliography
228
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From the new introduction...
Written
three decades ago, The Unidentified
and Creatures of the Outer
Edge long ago took on lives of their own and acquired a passionate,
enduring following. As the two of us look at these works today, we see
a record of our youthful interests and enthusiasms. We see an original,
creative approach that would prove influential - though we could not
have known it at the time - in the evolving debates about anomalous and
paranormal phenomena. We see lots of interesting cases and stories,
many of which still intrigue and enthrall us well into our
adulthoods.
At
the time we wrote these two books, we were a decade and a half into our
careers as anomalists, both of us having started down this path in our
young teens. In the late 1960s and 1970s we were under the added
influence of counterculture currents then omnipresent, though they are
barely felt in this very different era. It was, however, the
counterculture that led us to the theories of the psychological
philosopher Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), at least as understood by our
youthful selves. To us Jung provided a framework in which ostensible
anomalies and paranormal incidents could be reevaluated. We thought
then that Jung's key unlocked all kinds of doors, exposing links that
would connect such apparently disparate phenomena as fairylore,
cryptozoological creatures, and flying-saucer contact tales.
Soon after
these books were published, our ideas and perspectives began moving on
to what we believe are more intellectually sustainable
interpretations...
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Jerome
Clark is a longtime
ufologist and
anomalist, who has appeared on NBC, ABC, the Discovery Channel, the
History Channel, and A&E. He has written nearly 20
books,
including two Book of the Month Club selections and the award-winning,
multi-volume The UFO Encyclopedia, as well as songs
recorded by Emmylou
Harris, Tom T. Hall, and other country, folk, and bluegrass artists.
His most recent book is Unnatural Phenomena. He
lives in southwestern
Minnesota with his wife, writer and editor Helene Henderson.
Loren Coleman is the world's most
popular
living cryptozoologist. He appears frequently on television and radio,
and has even been turned into a fictional character in novels and comic
books. He is the author of more than two dozen books, including Bigfoot!;
Mysterious America; and Cryptozoology A to Z
(with Jerome
Clark). His fieldwork has taken him from Scotland's Loch Ness to the
rainforests of Mexico, from the Everglades to the Pacific Northwest's
Bigfoot country. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his sons.
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What People Are Saying:
"[These] two early books...defined forteana in the late Seventies...The
Unidentified
had a huge influence on contemporary ufology, drawing on the fields of
folklore and mysticism, history, parapsychology, cryptozoology, and
forteana. Creatures of the Outer Edge did pretty
much the same
for cryptozoology...these two books were the vanguard of today's
fortean literature. Their writing was savvy, knowledgeable and yet
current... We owe a big thanks to Clark and Coleman, who barely out of
their teens at the time, dared to challenge the old ufologists,
crytpozoologists, parpsychologits and folklorists to break out of, as
they put it, 'controversy long stalemated between literalists
(believers) and rejectionists (debunkers).' They did so with vigor and
relevance and, on the way, married field research with library work
while paying due tribute to Charles Fort. This is a good and handy
volume to have ..Clark and Coleman were certainly one of my
inspirations in the early days of Fortean Times." –
Bob Rickard, Fortean Times
"It
is a pleasure...to mark the reappearance in a single volume of two
classic investigative works from the 1970s, penned in concert by
renowned Fortean authors Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, A new
introduction to the omnibus edition explains that the authors have
changed their minds (or, at least, their perspective) on certain
subjects covered in these early volumes, but to their credit, they have
left the original texts undisturbed and unredacted. They are willing to
bear criticism and invite debate on subjects that are still as fresh,
as mystifying, as when Clark and Coleman first set pens to paper in the
Nixon years. Readers who missed these books first time around,
including many who were yet unborn, now have a chance to savor ‘golden
oldies’ in their pristine form.” – Michael Newton, Mysteries
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