The Magic Island

This article is about the book. For other uses, see Magic Island (disambiguation).
The Magic Island
First edition cover
AuthorWilliam Seabrook
IllustratorAlexander King[1]
LanguageEnglish
SubjectHaiti and Haitian Vodou
GenreTravelogue
PublisherHarcourt, Brace & Company
Publication date
January 3, 1929
Publication placeUnited States

The Magic Island is a book by American explorer and traveler William Seabrook. First published in 1929 by Harcourt, Brace & Company, The Magic Island is an account of Seabrook's experiences with Haitian Vodou in Haiti, and is considered the first popular English-language work to describe the concept of a zombie,[2][3] defined by Seabrook as "a soulless human corpse, still dead, but taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a mechanical semblance of life—it is a dead body which is made to walk and act and move as if it were alive."[4]

The Magic Island was published on January 3, 1929, and was named one of that month's best-selling non-fiction books by Baker & Taylor.[5] It received praise from critics at the time for its characterization of the people and culture of Haiti and its exploration of Vodou, although some reviewers questioned Seabrook's credibility and the accuracy of the material.[3] Retrospective reviews have been critical of the book's depiction of Haiti and Vodou, especially in relation to the United States' then-ongoing occupation of Haiti.[6][7]

The book has been credited with popularizing the image of zombies as products of Vodou and witchcraft:[4][8][9] it inspired the 1932 New York stage play Zombie, written by Kenneth Webb,[10][11] and influenced the 1932 horror film White Zombie, directed by Victor Halperin;[11] the latter is widely considered the first feature-length zombie film.[11][12]

In 2016, The Magic Island was reprinted by Dover Publications, with an introduction written by George A. Romero.[13]

  1. ^ Fort Worth Star-Telegram 1929.
  2. ^ "The Magic Island". Smithsonian Libraries. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Rhodes 2006, p. 81.
  4. ^ a b Kee, Chera (2017). Not Your Average Zombie: Rehumanizing the Undead from Voodoo to Zombie Walks. University of Texas Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1477313305.
  5. ^ "Best Sellers". The Post-Crescent. Appleton, Wisconsin. February 9, 1929. p. 20. Retrieved June 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dayan 2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Frohnapfel 2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Pielak, Chase; Cohen, Alexander H. (2017). Living with Zombies: Society in Apocalypse in Film, Literature and Other Media. McFarland & Company. p. 39. ISBN 978-1476665849.
  9. ^ de Laforcade, Geoffroy; Stein, Daniel; Waegner, Cathy C., eds. (2022). The Aliens Within: Danger, Disease, and Displacement in Representations of the Racialized Poor. De Gruyter. p. 148. ISBN 978-3110789744.
  10. ^ "Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: Feb. 22, 1932". Time. February 22, 1932. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c Edwards, Justin D.; Vasconcelos, Sandra Guardini, eds. (2019). Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture: The Americas. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-0367873561.
  12. ^ DeGiglio-Bellemare, Mario; Ellbé, Charlie; Woofter, Kristopher, eds. (2014). Recovering 1940s Horror Cinema: Traces of a Lost Decade. Lexington Books. p. 227. ISBN 978-1498503792.
  13. ^ Lauro, Sarah Juliet; Connor, Christina (April 20, 2022). "Zombies in Print". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1357. ISBN 978-0-19-020109-8. Retrieved June 15, 2023.