Voices from the Vaults: Authentic Tales of Vampires and Ghosts

Edith Fowke is a professor emeritus at York University and author of the
recently published Canadian Folklore: Perspectives on Canadian Culture.

This is a most peculiar book. It contains a great many interesting vampire tales, described in the introduction as “an anthology of haunting from different climes by authors of various nationalities. There are authentic stories of modern vampire visitations as well as classic tales of ghostly lore. Some are historical accounts, others are literary inventions.” That indicates a mixed bag, but the subtitle does not discriminate: it terms all the tales “Authentic Tales of Vampires and Ghosts.” Most of them are obviously fictional, and despite the introduction’s claim that some are “authentic stories of modem vampire visitations” and “some are historical accounts,” I was unable to find any that seemed to me either historical or authentic. “The Italian Count” is said to be based upon the true experience of the Reverend Montague Summers, and “Nellie’s Grave” is said to describe vampire manifestations in Rhode Island in 1969. Neither of these reads like a factual account — and most of the others are obviously fictional.

This book could have been a fascinating study of vampire legends through the ages. The editor has obviously done considerable research on the subject, some of which explains how the legends originated, but the attempt to present the stories as factual cannot help but destroy the credibility of the work as a whole.