Oct 03, 2025 JOIN US—IF YOU DARE… BOO!KS TO DIE FOR

This October, in collaboration with Bookish SLC, the Rare Books Department invites you to step beyond the library’s familiar daylight glow and into the dark and twisted corners of book history.

The veil between this world and the next will lift at precisely 6:00 p.m. on October 21st. The evening begins with a spine-tingling lecture on the enduring entanglement of the book and the occult across time, space, and otherworldly realms. Together, we will explore the works of printers, artists, and authors who reveled in the uncanny, seeking to uncover why their tantalizing creations still unsettle readers enthralled by the morbid. Those bold enough to linger are invited to enjoy a candlelit walk among the restless volumes—breathing in their centuries-old dust and turning their timeworn pages—before succumbing to poisoned refreshments and chilling conversation with fellow bibliophiles.

Bookish SLC and the Marriott Library present Books to Die for
October 21, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
The Ghould (Gould) Auditorium on Level 1

The volumes that follow are but a mere prelude to the horrors that await on the eve of October 21^st, casting a brief shadow of the tale waiting to unfold. Read on, if you dare…

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Our ghostly passage through time will begin with two deceptively simple questions: What is the occult and where did it come from? To answer these questions is to trace humanity’s age-old impulse to conflate religion and science. Historically, the two have always been closely intertwined.

Before modern medicine the body and mind were still mysteries in and of themselves: How did sickness manifest? Why? What happens when the body and soul part? For centuries, these questions were answered with spells and spirits, prayers and premonitions—until science dared to cut closer to the truth.

De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1555
QM25 V4 1555

Andreas Vesalius, a physician from Brussels, led the way in the endeavor. His De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) was among the first great anatomical works born of dissection. A practice that, at the time, was deemed irreverent and even sinful. Out of respect for the ecclesiastical world, surgeons often refused to touch the knife themselves, enlisting butchers to make incisions under their explicit directions.

Vesalius’ work was as grotesque and graphic as it was groundbreaking. Not only did it confirm the mysteries of man, it championed science over superstition, if only for a fleeting moment. His dissections advanced science even as society clung to the beliefs that ailments of the body and mind stemmed from the devil’s hand. In effect, physicians became healers of body and soul, working as priests against unseen forces.

Levinus Lemnius, a student of Vesalius was one such individual. He questioned the prevailing obsession with demons and spirits. In his magnum opus, De miracvlis occvltis natvrae,, he argues that natural and medical phenomena should not be attributed to the devil but, rather, were the result of rational causes. His voice was one of many seeking to unravel superstition with reason.

De miracvlis occvltis natvrae,
Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568)
Antwerp: Christopher Plantini, 1581
BF1410 L4

Despite the work of Vesalius, Lemnius, and their contemporaries, the fear of the occult persisted. In sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, witchcraft accusations sky-rocketed, sharpened only by the fatal fires of the Reformation. Those who strayed from the narrow path of Christianity risked being branded not only heretics but also witches. This paradigm applied most strongly to women, who have always been punished for transgressive behavior more severely. This hysteria eventually crossed the Atlantic, culminating in the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

The Wonders of the Invisible World
Cotton Mather
London : J. R. Smith, 1862.
BF1575 M38 1862

Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister and physician, became one of Salem’s chief architects. His Wonders of the Invisible World defended the trials as an act of holy duty, claiming the witches were sent from Satan to destroy the colony. To this day, his book remains the most detailed justification of Salem’s terror.

As time passed, women’s relationship to the occult shifted. By the nineteenth century, during the rise of the Spiritualist movement, women who once would have been condemned were instead welcomed as mediums and psychics. With the Civil War claiming countless lives, these women and their promise of communicating with the dead seemed irresistible.

Kate Bender , the Kansas murderess
Vance Randolph
Girard, Kan. : Haldeman-Julius, 1944
HV6248.B37 H37 1944

Yet not all who wore the veil of Spiritualism were harmless. One such woman was named Kate Bender, an immigrant from Germany. Those who knew Kate claimed she was evil, with some declaring they had even seen her making deals with the devil in the moonlight, though, few were aware of the monstrosities Kate was committing in the shadows.

With her family, Kate murdered and buried dozens of victims, earning them the name “The Bloody Benders.” Pamphlets like Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess immortalized the crimes of Kate and others, laying the groundwork for the true crime narratives that still capture our attention today.

These books are just a few of the many that will urge us to question the boundaries between the real and the mystical, the rational and the terrifying. Those brave enough to join should also prepare to hear the whispered incantations of ancient (and modern) spell books, to witness the forbidden rites of medieval alchemists, and to cross paths with the restless ghosts of gothic literature. Beware—this will be no ordinary night but one that will haunt you for years to come.

Learn more about our Boo!ks to Die For and claim your place among the shadows here.

Contributed by Theadora Soter, Rare Books Assistant Curator

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For more spooky reads, check out the following:

Book of the Week — The True Story of the Exorcism of Denise de la Caille

Book of the Week — The Case for Spirit Photography

Book of the week — Melchior Hedloff, the Melcher Shooter

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