V is for Vampire
Nearly as comprehensive as the recent Madonna encyclopedia and of far greater long-term appeal, Skal's vampire vade mecum is also wonderful to read straight through, for each page contains its entertaining tidbits. All of the expected entries are here--Lugosi, Bela; Stoker, Bram; Nosferatu, etc. But they are trumped in interest by the more obscure items: Mad Monster Party, for instance, a 1967 'live-animation horror comedy with music,' and many a foreign vampire movie, book, and story. The entry for the 1927 Lon Chaney movie London after Midnight is particularly entertaining, thanks to discussion of its status as a supposedly lost classic, unsubstantiated reports of which 'keep cropping up like sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.' Skal rakes up Karl Marx's vampire connection and Oscar Wilde's--which was more to be expected--too. Yet Skal notably refrains from desperate reaching to connect anything and everything to vampires and vampirism. His book is great fun and contains two must-have photos of, respectively, Bob Denver and Tiny Tim in Dracula drag. - Mike Tribby--BL 10/01/1995.