Georgess McHargue meets werewolves and witches

Writer Georgess McHargue (1941-2011) had a pretty amazing 70 years on Earth. In addition to writing numerous fiction and nonfiction books, she was an editor, poet, book reviewer, gardener and animal lover, among other things. According to her obituary, "Her political activism began with protesting the Viet Nam war, segregation, and continued through her life as she stood firmly against all social injustice and repression of freedom everywhere." She married a blue-eyed archaeologist, Michael, whose interests dovetailed perfectly with her own.

When she died, she'd had breast cancer for 16 years. Per her obituary: "She detested the notion of 'battling' cancer, and decided she'd rather dance."

I couldn't find a complete bibliography of the 35 books that she wrote. I know the list includes the well-regarded 1975 novel Stoneflight, which mixes magic with a teenage girl's struggle to deal with her parents' marital problems. Here's an compelling Betsy Bird review of the book.

In 1972 she published The Impossible People: A History Natural and Unnatural of Beings Terrible and Wonderful, which, years ago, was the first book of hers that I encountered.

And she wrote three books for The Eerie Series, looking specifically at "monsters" through the lens of folklore and history: Meet the Werewolf, Meet the Vampire and Meet the Witches.

I have the werewolf and witches volumes. The vampire seems to be a little tougher to track down.

While monsters weren't entirely Georgess' jam — she was a serious historian whose skepticism about the supernatural is perhaps best conveyed in her 1972 book Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement — I do want to write a little bit about her two "Eerie Series" books today for Halloween.

• Meet the Werewolf
• First published in 1976. This is the second printing of the J.B. Lippincott paperback.
• Drawings by Stephen Gammell (plus numerous historical illustrations).
• Cover design by Jean Krulis
• Dedication: "This book is for Traci, even though she has now given up werewolves for dolphins."
• Warning on first page: "This is a scary book. Werewolves are supposed to be monsters that eat people, and it is impossible to write about them without some blood and gore. So if you like monsters and enjoy being a little scared, read on. But if you don't like the dark and always think something is looking in your window, this may not be the book for you."
• Chapter titles: 1. What Is a Werewolf? 2. How to Tell a Werewolf When You See One. 3. How to Become a Werewolf. 4. How to Get Rid of a Werewolf. 5. Relatives of the Werewolf. 6. Jean Grenier, the Original "Teenage Werewolf." 7. Gilles Garnier, the Werewolf of Dôle. 8. Peter Stump and Others. 9. Were Werewolves Real? 10. Why Werewolves? 11. The Worst Werewolf Story of All (a retelling of a tale from Elliott O'Donnell's 1912 book Werwolves).
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2003, A. Tomsho wrote: "The book contains numerous ancient stories and accounts, eerie illustrations, and a wealth of obscure information on werewolf lore. ... Other bits of obscure folklore are included, such as the concept of using silver to kill werewolves is a myth. It describes how werewolves can be good, evil, or even detached from human morality all together depending on which region of the world they come from and who tells the tales. It dedicates a space to other shapeshifters as well, such as the werefox witches of Japan."

• Meet the Witches
• Published 1984. This is the stated first edition hardcover from J.B. Lippincott
• Jacket design by Harriett Barton, with illustration courtesy of New York Public Library
• Dedication: "To Michael and Cerridwen"
• Warning on first page: "This is a scary book. Witches in fairy tales eat children, and many people in the world today still believe that witches can make them sick or kill them. Furthermore, any book about witches has to talk about the time in our history when large numbers of real people were burned and tortured to death because they were accused of being witches. If you don't mind all that because you're curious to know where we got our ideas about witches, you will enjoy this book. But if you have nightmares about being chased by people with pointy teeth and you get very nervous when a black cat crosses your path, you had better find something else to do. Above all, do not read this book at night when you are alone."
• Chapter titles: 1. The Weird Sisters. 2. The First Spear and the Second. 3. The Worst Witch Story of All. 4. Fairy Tales, Fox-Witches, and Zombies. 5. Meet the Pagan Witch. 6. The Hammer of Witches. 7. Bring On the Devil's Armies! 8. Satanists, Keep Out.
• Excerpt from author's note: "The stories in this book are my own retellings of very old tales. 'The Worst Witch Story of All' is contained in The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius."
• Goodreads review: In 2017, Jennifer wrote: "Really well done. I was surprised how informative this book was and didn't sugar coat it for children. I would have loved to have read this in elementary school and turned in a book report on it."

Two final things. First, my used copy of Meet the Witches has this nifty sticker for the National Women's History Project, which was founded in 1980 and the history of which can be read about here.

And here's a rare opportunity for community cat Creamsicle, now 4½, 

to get into one of the "cats and books" photos.