Rarer Than Thylacines

Only 30 exist in Maine and they won’t become visible for sightings until October 7, 2006. Overall, only 200 are known to be around, and some of those already have vanished into private hands. They are almost extinct, although just discovered, and the entire group will disappear soon, mostly into private collections.

Would you believe one of the rarest of rare books to be published on cryptozoology, the volume that contains the exhibition catalogue and essays from the Bates College program? If you are interested in having me pick up a copy of Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale for you, read on. If you are just interested in learning about the book, in general, continue onward, as well.

Appearing this week, at the 4:00-6:00 pm reception on Saturday, October 7th at the Bates College’s Museum of Art, only 30 of the advance volumes from only an entire printed stock of 200 will be there for sale.

Although I have one essay and there are several photos of my collection in this oversized paperbound book, it is not my book and I am not the editor. I am a contributor, of course.

This book, well hidden in the publishing world and unavailable via the usual online booksellers, is by curator and editor Mark H. C. Bessire of Bates.

It is a wonderful and amazing book. Lots of photographs, incredible thoughtful essays, very artsy layout.

The 170 pages of the book squeeze in more words, photographs and illustrations on the mixture between cryptozoology and art, cryptozoology and museums, and cryptozoology and imagination than has been gathered in one volume. The book contains at least three essays that talk about the legacy of Charles Fort, who has often been left out of cryptozoology-art discourse. The text might seem to overflow with Thylacine, Bigfoot, Yeti, and Coelacanth references, but the imagery shows an incredible variety of cryptids and imagined cryptids.

The one brief mention that I have seen of this book by the publisher describes it as having "60 images." I just took my personal advance copy and counted, one at a time, all the photographs, drawings, and illustrations on the book’s pages. There are 110 individual images, plus 236 photographic frames from Jill Miller’s "Waiting for Bigfoot" project. That is 346 images in a 170 page volume. Some of the images cover two pages, as if you look directly into one of the exhibition rooms. Compelling. This is an art book but like none you have seen before.

The book will become a rare collectible almost as soon as it is officially published in a few days. It contains a brief view of a brief event that will now live on, and I’m proud to have been part of it.

The book contains the following essays: "Alternative Authorities and the Museum of Wonder" by Mark H. C. Bessire "Cryptozoology and Art" by Sean Foley "Cryptozoology and the Search for Bigfoot: Science or Pseudoscience?" by Loring M. Danforth "An Introduction to Cryptozoology" by Loren Coleman "Fort Knocks" by Chris Thompson "Do Cryptozoologists Dream of Jurassic Park?" by Dave Filipi "The Call of the Wild" by Nato Thompson.

Loring Danforth, a Bates College anthropologist, skeptically attacks Bigfoot studies and cryptozoology as pseudoscience. His chapter is shown here next to a photograph of Rant Mullens in 1982, credited to Michael Dennett.

The book is filled with some of the wonders of the exhibition, such as one of well-known artist Mark Dion’s installation doors; photographed by Luc Demers.

My chapter on cryptozoology comes after black and white photos of the Bates assemblage of items from my collection, and followed by color snapshots of some of my museum’s items, in situ, before some of these same objects were moved to Bates; photographed by Luc Demers.

The book also captured casual discussions that occurred, as shown here between bronze sculpturist Richard Klyver, Brazilian exhibition artist Walmor Correa and yours truly, Loren Coleman; photographed by Luc Demers.

Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale contains the art of all the exhibitors, to wit, Rachel Berwick, Sarina Brewer, Walmor Correa, Mark Dion, Sean Foley, Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera, Ellen Lesperance, Robert Marbury, Jill Miller, Vik Muniz, Jeanine Oleson, Rosamond Purcell, Alexis Rockman, Marc Swanson, Jeffrey Vallance, Jamie Wyeth and Loren Coleman, curated by Bates’ Mark H. C. Bessire, Kansas City Artspace’s Raechell Smith, and Bates’ Liz Sheehan.

BTW, for those that want any autographed copies of my books for Halloween and the following holidays, I might as well mention those too. If you want to buy directly from me any of my books, such as The Field Guide to Bigfoot (Anomalist Books’ new 2006 edition with new material), The Unidentified/Creatures of the Outer Edge (yes, two books in one, republished with a new preface in 2006 by Anomalist Books), The Field Guide to Lake Monster, Sea Serpents…. (2003), Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (2002), and Mysterious America (2001 paperbound edition), I can get those to you quickly. I’ll send any of these for $25 (postpaid) sent via my PayPal account lcoleman{@}maine.rr.com (just remove the "{}" placed here to discourage spam) anytime between now and when I run out of my stock. That "l" in front of "coleman" is a "L" not the numeral "one."

As I’ve mentioned for many years, living life on the edge here is done by selling my own books and it remains about the only way I make anything from any of my cryptozoological work to support more research. Nothing in hand from this blog, nothing from documentary appearances, and nothing from answering over 500 emails a month from friends, fans, youthful cryptozoologists-in-training, associates, fiends, and enemies, but the satisfaction of sharing cryptozoology with the world. Your fiscal support of my efforts is always appreciated, in whatever way you can do that.

See you at the closing reception at Bates, if you can make it. Or have me pick up this great new book by Bates Museum of Art Director Mark Bessire, if you wish.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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