Pearlnight's Lair/ Projects / Bier-bliography

Bier (plural biers): a table or platform on which a coffin or dead body is placed at a funeral.
— Encyclopædia Britannica

This is my personal bibliography for vampiric affairs. It curates a selection of folklore studies, university press releases and anthologies. For its citations, it uses the obscure TavernDweller style, which itself is based off the 7th edition of the MLA Handbook. For your convenience, their titles are marked in red, because this page gets dense.

How to use this Bibliography

If you’re an absolute beginner to the topic, I recommend starting with The Vampire Encyclopedia by Matthew Bunson. Encyclopaedias are particularly accessible: they allow for non-linear reading, use straightforward language, and maintain a consistent structure. They give out just enough information to inspire interest without overwhelming the reader.

If you’re already acquainted with the topic and want a more dense means of entry, Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber is a solid text. It explains how vampire myths likely emerged and propagated, particularly as a reaction to decomposition.

In terms of foundational figures, the most famous are Augustin Calmet and Montague Summers. Calmet, though dubious of their veracity, wrote numerous dissertations on occult topics, treating vampires and similar undead as a theological question. Summers compiled folklore throughout Europe, producing seminal works such as The Vampire in Europe and The Vampire in Lore and Legend. As this bibliography aims beyond the Anglosphere, Jean Marigny earns a spot here for his own folkloric work and now quietly lives as an emeritus.

Beyond these starting points, you can approach this bibliography any way you see fit, whether chronologically or thematically. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages: reading chronologically highlights how vampire studies have evolved over time, revealing shifts in framing, language, and politics. By contrast, a thematic approach offers a more focused experience. Alternatively, for readers uninterested in nonfiction, the bibliography also includes a collection of vampire-themed anthologies.

Many of these works are rare, out of print, and in some cases borderline impossible to find. Some exist only in private collections or dwell in layers of other folkloric sources. Others may require translation, or survive only as incomplete copies. As a result, I have not read everything on this list and cannot realistically aspire to do so. At times, it's best to think backwards, like Ifnkovhgroghprm, or oh-oh-oy! However, you can locate solid swathes of them in libraries, book retailers and general secondhand stores. For example, I own a physical copy of Basil Copper’s The Vampire in Legend, Fact and Art that I acquired for five financialshires.

As of writing, I don’t have a public email for submissions or discoveries. When I set one up (for reasons unrelated to this project), I’ll announce it. For now, comments can be left on my Neocities.

Exclusions

Books solely focused on "vampiric" historical figures such as Elizabeth Báthory or Vlad Tepes

While many of these books stray away from making such comparisons, the ones that do are pseudohistorical and thus, do not belong here.

Books that discuss "vampiric" criminal acts, such as blood-letting or cannibalism

I see true crime as a cruel spectacle that has no place in folkloric discussion. Some of the featured texts make slight detours for true crime, but there's none solely on the topic. However, more respectful, anthropological explorations of cannibalism are much appreciated. For example, I will recommend An Intellectual History of Cannibalism by Cătălin Avramescu.

Books that use vampires as metaphors for abusive relationships

I see no educational value in tired metaphors and therapy-speak. More importantly, I do not think the metaphor holds. Abusing other people is a choice; vampirism is not. To make such comparisons flattens the abuser into a one-note creature and, in doing so, absolves them of personal responsibility. This framing can shift blame onto the aggrieved party, implying that such mistreatment is expected and that seeking better treatment is farcical, while sparing the “vampire” from meaningful criticism. Abusive people are neither otherworldly nor incomprehensible; they are entirely human. Those who suffer through their behaviour deserve better than these half-formed explanations.

Books that discuss vampire lifestyle, subcultures and adjacent topics

I prefer folkloric discussion over fandom. This bibliography allows books on peoples' reactions to vampires, but not the mass-market branding of alternative subcultures.

Online articles on vampires

They source from the very texts on this page, so to feature them would be redundant.

Citation Style

I'll let Taverndweller explain this for himself.

"The taverndweller bibliographic style (tbs) is loosely based on the 7th edn. of the MLA Handbook's1 list of works cited style. However, MLA's style, as well as the other main bibliographic styles, are inadequate for online bibliography. If one wants to write, say, Javascript to deal with multiple entries by the same author beginning with "---", one may of course do that. If one wants to let HTML and microdata do the heavy lifting something else is needed. So under my system you will list the author's full name for each entry, but what of it? Modern text editors allow you to copy and paste text from and to a specific place with ease.

Existing microdata schema's are also inadequate for book lists. schema.org's Book class is ridiculous; the term "name" has a specific meaning in most book catalogues, and that meaning isn't the title of the book. Many of schema.org's properties are derived from other classes; only six properties in the Book class are specific to books. All too often, schema.org's properties are clumsily shoehorned into HTML elements. And schema.org's properties lack the granularity needed for bibliographic information.

The tbs has been designed from the ground up to incorporate HTML5 and my own microdata schema. Bbliographic information, markup, and microdata are inextricably combined into a unified whole. It works fine for book lists but is extensible to include the complexities of, say, Bowers. It is as flexible as one needs it to be. And importantly, it is simple. Zed Shaw once wrote "A love affair with complexity is a programming sickness"2. The tbs eschews that sickness.

The tbs consists of four classes: Book, Book Chapter, Periodical, Periodical Article. Each class has it's own properties, and each property has an expected type, or type for short. Most properties are embedded in a element, but Book and Periodical titles are embedded in a element, and date properties are embedded in a element. Below is a brief summation of the expected format of each class. Follow the class links for a complete description and detailed examples."