I've been fascinated by the history of witchcraft since I was eight years old, at which point I acquired a copy of
Peter Haining's superb WITCHCRAFT AND BLACK MAGIC (1972), part of the
Knowledge Through Color series, via (believe it or not) the Scholastic
Books program.
Remember, kids: Knowledge is power!
It was a serious book on the history of witchcraft, mostly as seen in
Europe and early America, and it pulled zero punches in describing all
of the nastiness that anti-witch crusaders wanted the general public to
believe, and it even included reproductions of ultra-graphic woodcuts
and pamphlets outlining assorted tortures administered by "professional"
witch-hunters and agents of the Spanish Inquisition, so you can imagine
what an education it was for this eight-year-old. From that formative
influence I developed a taste for horror stories about witchcraft,
especially those that hewed close to what was historically believed to
have been practiced by real witches, and being awakened to the fact that
the anti-witch hysteria and persecution was perpetrated by misogynistic
criminals who feared wise women did nothing to diminish my taste for
the sub-genre.
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