Ready Reference Files

Necronomicon

Shannon Presley of Harvest Books, an online book dealer, receives requests to find copies of the "Necronomicon." She responds by telling customers that:

"'The Necronomicon', by the Mad Arab (different names abound), is a fictional book. The horror writer H.P. Lovecraft mentioned that book in stories early in the 21st century. Books by that title have been written after they were referred to in H.P. Lovecraft's stories, but even Lovecraft himself only wrote a bibliographical history, a small (4 pp.) but thorough tracing of the book' s origins, author, and translations beginning in 730 AD. This is probably the most famous phantom book ever, mentioned in the 'Evil Dead' trilogy, 'Ghostbusters,' and even a film named 'Necronomicon!' , and many different editions abound, called by their real author's names. There is the Hay version, the Simon version, and a few others. However, all of these were written within the past sixty years, and most authors have come forward to admit their copy is a hoax."

Source: email from Shannon Presley to Webmaster, dated October 4, 2001.Used with permission.

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