Book Review: Vampires Unearthed: The Complete Multimedia Vampire & Dracula Bibliography by Martin V. Riccardo
This book was published in 1983 so the “complete” does not hold up by 2025 standards LOL (...There is no Twilight) but nonetheless it still manages to list off 1,116 books, plays, short stories, movies, non-fiction, history and medical cases. This is most definitely still a comprehensive collection of Vampire Culture.
Selfie with another book I grabbed that day.
I recently did another book haul, a friend and I hit up 4 independent book stores in Nova Scotia as a fun Saturday activity.
We called it our “book crawl” because we’re too old/ tired to pub crawl anymore. Too loud.
Our first stop was to The Odd Book in Wolfville that specializes in the old and unique literature. It also has a huge selection of local books that I always enjoy going through! I picked up Vampires Unearthed for $35.
I recently watched the TV series “What We Do in the Shadows” and it revived my enjoyment of the vampire tale. Vampires have been around for my entire memory of life, starting with “The Count” from Sesame Street. I’ve always been drawn to the dark and odd as gravitating to these stories was practically natural. When the first Twilight novel was published, I think I was around 14 years old and absolutely dived into the stories. That was peak literature at that age! I even excitedly read a few other books by that author that were… Fine.
Anyways, back to the present day. What We Do In The Shadows is on Disney+ and was the perfect show for the critters and I to cuddle up to over the winter, so to find a reference book that listed decades of vampire culture was incredible!
Vampires Unearthed: The Complete Multimedia Vampire & Dracula Bibliography by Martin V. Riccardo
Published 1983 By Garland Publishing Inc. Printed in the USA on paper with a 250 year lifespan so apparently it will live (in ideal conditions I’m sure) to the year 2233.
This is truly an inspiring collection of work, I have no idea if it’s actually complete but it would certainly keep any researcher busy for a while!
Everything Vampire:
Short stories
Novels
Dracula (got his whole section) 🦇
Children’s Literature (The Count 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣🧛♀️⚡)
Vampires in Comic Books
Vampire Movies
Vampire Theatre and Plays
Vampire Records and Recordings
Vampire Poetry and Songs
Medical accounts of “blood drinking” humans
The Vampire as an Unearthly Reality
Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) the historical vampire
Biographies of figures connected with vampirism
Vampire Bats
Vampire Jokes and Humor (I’m totally adding to these LOL)
Vampire cookbooks (will probably not be adding to this)
Other Miscellaneous Vampire materials
The Count ❤️
Each section of these chapters would feature a short summary of one of the stories listed (such as Dracula). It’s an intriguing quick read that makes your brain want more, then you are provided with what feels like a lifetime’s worth of Vampire Culture, Literature and Media.
1,116 comprehensive (and very Google-able for exploration later) titles take up most of the pages in this book but I mean that in the deepest of compliments.
Dracula received so much attention in this book because it was the start of vampires prominent in pop culture. Stories written today are still loosely based on Dracula as a lot of “what makes a vampire a vampire” is based off this book that was published in 1923.
I must confess, I’ve never read Dracula so I think that will be the next book I look to read! Continue this Vampiric literature adventure.
I love this book, I will definitely be keeping it on my bookshelf as a reference and inspiration for a spooky tale- it holds so much value in it! I didn’t bother to check if it has any monetary value past what I paid because frankly.. It doesn’t matter- the book is far from pristine and I don’t intend to sell it.
