After over seven years of writing, editing, and researching, my book on the history of witchcraft in Illinois is finally available for preorder on Amazon.com!
Although Illinois saw no dramatic witch trials, witchcraft has been a part of Illinois history and culture from French exploration to the present day.
On the Illinois frontier, pioneers pressed silver dimes into musket balls to ward off witches, while farmers dutifully erected fence posts according to phases of the moon.
In 1904, the quiet town of Quincy was shocked to learn of Bessie Bement’s suicide, after the young woman sought help from a witch doctor to break a hex.
In turn-of-the-century Chicago, Lauron William de Laurence’s occult publishing house churned out manuals for performing bizarre rituals intended to attract love and exact revenge.
For the first time in print, Michael Kleen presents the full story of the Prairie State’s dalliance with the dark arts.
With a foreword by Owen Davies, Professor of Social History, University of Hertfordshire. Author of America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem (2013).
Witchcraft in Illinois: A Cultural History will be released by The History Press on September 18. Pre-order today!
M.A. Kleen 