Mocata's Library of Magic, Religion, and the Supernatural

While primarily known for sci-fi stories, including various Star Trek stories, James Blish also wrote one of the greatest works of occult fiction: Black Easter.  From what I have read, Blish developed the idea for Black Easter by deciding to write something where magic is definitely real and works just as it is supposed to, but using only magical tomes that really exist, rather than any invented ones, such as The Necronomicon . Paperback edition by Dell The story is quite simple, but also rather fascinating.  It revolves around a practitioner of magic, Theron Ware, who performs various rituals for hire.  He is approached by an arms dealer who wants to try something of an experiment.  After Ware performs some smaller feats for him, convincing him of the efficacy of magic, the arms dealer says he wants to free all the demons of hell for one night.  Ware finds that he is actually quite interested in this idea, so he agrees. The bulk of the story deals with Ware p...

As the idea for this blog came from a Dennis Wheatley project, it is only fitting that I start with a Dennis Wheatley novel.  This was the first of his books that I ever read.  I found a paperback of it along with another of his books, The Ka of Gifford Hillary , at a local chain used book shop.  The name Dennis Wheatley jumped out at me, although I couldn't recall why I knew that name, so I picked up both books.  When I looked inside the books, where there was a list of other Dennis Wheatley titles published by the same company, I began to understand why the name was familiar to me-- I saw the titles The Devil Rides Out and To the Devil-- a Daughter .  I also realized that I had read his name in connection with the band Black Sabbath in articles citing his black magic novels as an influence on the band's lyrics.  Many years later now, I have picked up and read a great number of his books. 1960s era paperback edition from Arrow, featuring some excellent co...

The idea for this blog stems from a series of paperback reprints released in the 1970s by Sphere Books.  This was a series curated by British author Dennis Wheatley, who had gained quite a reputation for writing stories about black magic and the occult, although this really only comprised a small percentage of his writings. The volumes in the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult were selected by Wheatley himself, each featuring an introduction by him.  Wheatley chose titles from both fiction and non-fiction.  Topics ranged from werewolves and vampires to palmistry and voodoo.  I decided it would be an interesting thing to do something similar of my own.  What I intend to do with this blog is to write pieces on various titles, including not just books, but also movies.  I will cover both fiction and non-fiction and the selections I choose will not be confined to one particular viewpoint.  I will have the first piece posted soon.  For any who are ...