“Drawing upon dark myths and legends culled from a variety of cultures and gathered over thousands of years, Vampire is a fascinating compendium of cautionary tales and hearsay, of written chronicles and firsthand encounters with the black angels that stalk the Earth in the dead of night. Mascetti reveals the secret rituals, spells and habits of these fiends; records their physical attributes, including the gruesome transformation from human to supernatural being; and catalogs the obsessions and desires that possess them. In addition, she takes the reader on a spine-chilling journey to the heart of Transylvania in search of Count Dracula himself.” Also known as Vlad the Impaler, he created a “forest of the impaled,” which lined the roads to welcome invading troops and all visitors. “Women, children, young and old men were staked, sharp poles thrust between their buttocks, the body being pulled downwards until the sharp point appeared through the throat or top of head; the wooden pole was then planted in the monstrous forest.” This was also to prevent crime in the area, and it did. DW

Publisher: Viking
Hardback: 200 pages
Illustrated

Lectures delivered by Gurdjieff from 1917 to 1933. “Our mind, our thinking, has nothing in common with us, with our essence—no connection, no dependence. Our mind lives by itself and our essence lives by itself. When we say 'to separate oneself from oneself' it means that the mind should stand apart from the essence.”

Publisher: Viking
Paperback: 276 pages

A dream journal that reads more like a memoir than some random collection of subconscious misadventures, My Education is Burroughs at his most vivid, impacted and vulnerable. Characters include everyone from friends (living and dead) to historical figures to extraterrestrials to his beloved cats. There's an elegiac, wistful tone throughout; the reflections and recollections of a man who, in his long life, has tasted (and endured) the extremes of love and suffering. Inherent in the very activity of dream—being outside of one's own body—is the element of transcendence, and this, too, emerges as a signature theme. While Burroughs has always questioned the limitations of language as they apply to meaning, here he repeatedly focuses that question on how those limits apply to loss. Tragically consistent with its overall mood, the book is dedicated to one Michael Emerton, a 26-year-old suicide; Burroughs writes: “An experience most deeply felt is the most difficult to put into words. Remembering brings the emptiness, the acutely painful awareness of irreparable loss.” Gone is the raging diagnostician of Naked Lunch and Nova Express; it's a kinder, gentler Burroughs within these pages—a long time in coming but well worth the wait. A must-read for anyone interested in the development of Burroughs' ongoing vision; an excellent introduction for the uninitiated. MDG

Publisher: Viking
Hardback: 193 pages
Illustrated

“Now I hate the killer’s guts. I shriek into his face that I want to see him croak like the llama he executed. He should be thrown alive to the crocodiles! An anaconda should strangle him slowly! A poisonous spider should sting him and paralyze his lungs. The most venomous serpent should bite him and make his brain explode! No panther claws should rip open his throat—that would be too good for him! No! The huge red ants should piss into his lying eyes and gobble up his balls and guts! He should catch the plague! Syphilis! Malaria! Yellow fever! Leprosy! It’s no use; the more I wish him the most gruesome deaths, the more he haunts me.”
The late Klaus Kinski was an actor possessed of a unique, demonic energy, whether applied to his life, his art, or to comments about Werner Herzog, the film director most closely associated with him. He was fond of saying, “I am like a wild animal born in captivity, in a zoo. But where a beast would have claws, I was born with talent.” Emerging from the dire poverty of pre-war Berlin and serving in the German army during the last year of World War II, he rose to international film stardom. Yet he always carried a personal hell with him as he strove to alleviate an unendurable sense of isolation through his acting or by having sex. His Casanova-like pursuit of sex started as a child with his sister and continued with countless others. In order to maintain his lifestyle, Kinski appeared in over 160 films, ranging from the classics Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu and Doctor Zhivago to such schlock as The Creature With the Blue Hand.
An edition of Kinski’s very personal and idiosyncratic memoirs appeared briefly in the United States in 1988. Approximately 55 pages shorter than this edition, it was abruptly withdrawn just prior to its publication. Now available for the first time is unexpurgated Kinski, blisteringly candid and with the charm of a must-see car crash. Includes a thorough cross-section of photographs from Kinski’s life and career. JAT

Publisher: Viking
Hardback: 325 pages
Illustrated