Books

New Dover Demon Sighting?

What’s up with this? Has there been a new sighting of the Dover Demon? I’ve mentioned the little guy lately here, because the Boston Globe did a new update around Halloween of last year and we are creeping up on Year #30. Also, over Christmas, I highlighted one of the figurines (example below), as they are reflective of how important the Dover Demon remains in Japan today. Nevertheless, a new sighting now is unexpected. But look what just showed up online: Last seen Saturday, February 3rd, 2007, in Westwood, Mass. behind the parking lot at Xaverian Brothers High School. Unsigned [...]

The Bridgewater Triangle Video

For fans of the Bridgewater Triangle, I ran across this new YouTube half-hour video. Anyone who has not been to the Hockomock Swamp and the surrounding area will find this footage enlightening. Enjoy. There is a chapter in the new Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures that specifically deals with the cryptozoological and Fortean aspects of this location.

Once In A Blue Moa

Did a young girl from a pioneering Fiordland family have the last human encounter with a moa? It has gone down in history as one of the most puzzling rare-bird sightings and it happened in the remote south-west corner of New Zealand. What was the big blue bird that pioneer Alice McKenzie saw at Martins Bay, 30km north of Milford Sound, in 1880? Experts are still debating nearly 130 years later. Did a species of moa, such as the little bush moa, survive human predation and live on in the Fiordland wilderness 400 years after they were thought to be [...]

Cryptozoology: First Use?

Cryptozoology, as you know, means “the study of hidden animals.” In 1955, Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans wrote a groundbreaking book in French, a now classic opus entitled (in English) On the Track of Unknown Animals. But in the 1955 French and the 1958 English editions, you will not find the word “cryptozoology,” in any language. The first (known) published use of the word “cryptozoology” in French, occurred in 1959 in a book by wildlife biologist Lucien Blancou, dedicated to “Bernard Heuvelmans, master of cryptozoology.” In 1961, Ivan T. Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life was first published. Sanderson’s book [...]

Great Auk

Chad Arment’s Coachwhip Publications has announced the release of The Great Auk, or Garefowl. Below is Arment’s overview of the contents. Grieve’s classic text on the Great Auk provides a wealth of information on early knowledge of this extinct bird: records of specimens (birds and eggs), lists of former breeding-grounds, and stories from sailors and explorers who had first-hand sightings of the auks before they disappeared. Discussion ranges from archaeology to etymology: where the garefowl got its name. (And, are they the true “penguins”?) First published in 1885, this scarce reprint brings back to light the detailed scholarship of one [...]

Oudemans’ Classic Resurfaces

You can go online today and find a copy of A.C. Oudemans’ The Great Sea-Serpent for $3705 US. The book is very rare, having been published first in 1892, by E. J. Brill in Leiden and by Luzac & Co. in London. Soon, a much more reasonably-priced edition will be available. The reprinting of the classic cryptozoological text, The Great Sea Serpent by Antoon C. Oudemans, has been in the works for months, with a new introduction by Loren Coleman. It will be published late in February, with an official publication date of March 1, 2007. This book is being [...]

Crypto: A Personal Journey

Craig Heinselman, who turns 33 in May, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and became interested in nature mysteries when still a boy in the early 1980s. Heinselman, now a father and resident of New Hampshire, made a sudden appearance in cryptozoology circles in 1998. He first shared a free newsletter CRYPTO, dealing with the study of hidden animals and, a special interest of his, cryptofiction, at conferences and through the mails. The newsletter ended in 2001, with the publication of Volume 4, No. 1. Then during 2001 and 2002, he published some special issues, entitled Special Dracontology Issue I, [...]