Cosimo author Loren Coleman will speak at Scarefest in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday and Saturday, September 12th and 13th — tickets are available at the door — and at Mass Monster Mash in Boston on Saturday, October 18th; tickets are selling out fast and seating is limited.

The Book of Werewolves, by Sabine Baring-Gould, is the latest volume in Cosimo’s Loren Coleman Presents series of classic cryptozoology books. This 1865 work, published here in a beautiful replica edition complete with the original illustrations, was the first serious academic study of the shape-shifters of mythological lore. Says Coleman in his new introduction:

This work is the most frequently cited early study of lycanthropy and is regarded by most scholars as the foundation work in the field. The Book of Werewolves was so visionary that it foresaw that future discussions within werewolf studies would necessarily travel down many side paths. Indeed, midway through The Book of Werewolves, Baring-Gould treks into the shadowy world of crimes vaguely connected to werewolves, including serial murders, grave desecration, and cannibalism.

The Book of Werewolves is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

UPDATE: Coleman will also appear at the Museum of Science in Boston on Wednesday, October 29, at 7pm to deliver a talk entitled “Bigfoot, Sea Serpents, and Cryptozoology.” The program is free and seating begins at 5:45 for this limited but open-to-the public event. Coleman will be signing books afterwards.