Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 26, 2014 0:29:59 GMT -5
Author Katherine Howe examines beliefs during witch hysteria
SALEM, Mass. – A lot of people read historical fiction because they are interested in history, but they find works of history a chore. This is the opinion of Katherine Howe of Marblehead, who has written three historical novels about witchcraft and spiritualism in New England, including the recently published Conversion. “When I’ve given talks on my own fiction in the past, I’ll talk about the history and that’s what people are really excited to hear about,” she said.
To help people read history that they can also enjoy, Howe has edited The Penguin Book of Witches. “The idea behind this book was really to create an accessible primary source selection,” she said. Primary sources are original documents from the past, Howe said, while secondary sources are the books historians write about those documents.
The book includes writings, transcripts and newspaper accounts dating from between 1582 and 1813 and it also discusses how the Bible shaped people’s ideas about witchcraft. “I have an introductory essay, and then each selection has its own small introduction, and then there are footnotes that clarify people, places, weird word usage,” Howe said. “What I’m trying to do here is show that belief in witchcraft is part of a big religious system, part of a big cultural system, that it made sense in that context.” The documents are organized into four sections and are drawn from “English Antecedents” to the Salem Witch panic of 1692, the early Colonial period, the events in Salem and the period following those events.
Source: Will Boraddus, The Salem News, September 25, 2014.