March 7, 2007

The Outer Edge

Just to answer a question about my first two books, The Unidentified and Creatures of the Outer Edge, with Jerome Clark, yes, they have been republished. And yes, they reflect our youthful theories, long thrown overboard. But the reports, sightings, and some connections still ring true, decades later.

Creatures of the Outer Edge

First appearing in 1975 and 1978, these two paperbacks were published in 2006, as a special double edition with a new introduction. The Unidentified and Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman is a combined quality paperbound book from Anomalist Books.

The Unidentified has intriguing, limited, and marginal information on cryptozoology. Historically, Creatures of the Outer Edge is more significant, in terms of looking at strange critters at the time it was published. Creatures of the Outer Edge surveys the cryptozoologically bountiful decade of the 1970s (and, of course, related cases of the past) with accounts on Mothman, Owlmen, Thunderbirds, Phantom Panthers, Devil Dogs, Texas Big Birds, and, yes, of course, Bigfoot.

Some of the individually "named" local Bigfoot creatures first appeared in Creatures of the Outer Edge, including Momo (Missouri Monster), Lake Worth Monster, Murphysboro Mud Monster, the Enfield creature, El Reno Chicken Man, Noxie Monster, Navajo’s Skinwalkers, and Yukon’s Bushman. Creatures of the Outer Edge also introduced the now-iconic Dover Demon for the first time to the general public. The appendix is dedicated to what this year are the now 30-year-old reports of “1977 – A Year Filled With Monsters.”

Table of Contents
Introduction to this Double Edition        1

Book One: The Unidentified

An Introductory Note                      8
UFOland: Other Worlds and the Otherworld          9
Fairyland: The Magical Impulse             45
Voices from Heaven: The Religious Impulse         93
The Airships: The Technological Impulse        131
UFOs: The Mystery in the Machine            165
Paraufology: Understanding the Incomprehensible    225
Selected Bibliography                    251
A Note on UFO and Fortean Publications        261
Index                            263

Book Two: Creatures of the Outer Edge
Introduction                          11
Chapter One: Mystery Animals              15
Chapter Two: The Bigfeet                  28
Chapter Three: The Manimals              51
Chapter Four: Phantom Cats and Dogs        117
Chapter Five: Things with Wings            165
Chapter Six: Phantasms                195
Epilogue: A Year Filled with Monsters        208
Bibliography                        228

To read part of the new introduction to Creatures of the Outer Edge and The Unidentified, go here.

If you want to purchase an autographed copy or copies, email me via clicking on this hyberlink to my contact form, or follow recent instructions here. Thank you.

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.

Filed under Alien Big Cats, Bigfoot, Books, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Dover Demon, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Lake Monsters, Lizard People, Mothman, Mystery Cats, Pop Culture, Swamp Monsters, Thunderbirds, Year In Review