Morbid Anatomy Anthology: Only A Few Hours of Fundraising/Pre-Ordering Left!

As many Morbid Anatomy readers already know, we at the blog have been very hard at work raising funds via Kickstarter for the nascent Morbid Anatomy Anthology Volume 1--a lavishly-illustrated book comprising a collection of articles based on some of the best of the Morbid Anatomy Presents lectures and presentation series. You can find out more about this project by watching the video above, or clicking here.

This fundraising campaign will end in a mere 36 hours! Although co-editor Colin Dickey and I have already well surpassed our $8,000 goal, we are still busily trying to raise as much money as possible with the goals of making this the most lavishly beautiful book it can be; of paying our 30+ contributors a decent honorarium; and, in the unlikely case of any left over funds, launching additional titles under the rubric of The Morbid Anatomy Press.

A $25 Kickstarter pledge acts as a pre-order, securing you a copy of the book; higher pledges will get you the book plus additional books from our contributors, Morbid Anatomy tote bags, and/or limited edition prints from Morbid Anatomy's Anatomical Theatre and Secret Museum exhibitions.

I promise you that this will be a a fantastic book--beautiful and fascinating, and unlike anything else on the market; further, by making a donation to this cause, you are in essence casting a vote a world that can--and will!--support this kind of niche, high-quality project which will never attract a mass audience but will utterly delight a dedicated few. To see many other better articulated reasons to support this project, check out curator Jeremy Brautman's wonderful post in support of this project by clicking here.

If you have not already done so, please consider supporting this project and securing a copy of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology Volume 1 of your very own by clicking here.

The book will cover such topics as anthropodermic bibliopegy (ie. books bound in human skin), 19th Century "Diableries," Henry Wellcome's collections of preserved human tattoos, 19th century death-themed Parisian cabarets, extreme taxidermy, popular wax anatomical models, "collecting death," the uncanny allure of the Anatomical Venus, Santa Muerte and Death in Mexico, L'Inconnue de la Seine, Terror Management Theory, "artist of death" Frederik Ruysch, macabre collections, and "human zoos."

Contributors to the volume range from TV stars to collectors; rogue scholars to university professors; artists to museum curators; morticians to auto-autodidacts; scientists to cultural critics. A list, in no particular order:

• Evan Michelson, star of TV's "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence Mark Dery, cultural critic and author of the upcoming The Doubtful Guest: The Mysterious Mind and Legendary Life of Edward Gorey
• David Pescovitz, Boing Boing 
• Paul Koudounaris, author/photographer of Empire of Death  
• Stephen Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads  
• Simon Chaplin, Head of The Wellcome Library  
• Caitlin Doughty of Order of the Good Death  
• Carl Schoonover, author of Portraits of the Mind  
• Mel Gordon, author of The Grand Guingol  
• Kate Forde, curator at The Wellcome Collection
• Pat Morris, author of Walter Potter and His Museum of Curious Taxidermy 
• Richard Faulk, author of Gross America 
• Writer Amber Jolliffe on Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class teacher Sue Jeiven 
• Elizabeth Bradley, author of Knickerbocker: The Myth behind New York Amy Herzog, professor of Professor of Media Studies at Queens College 
• Ronni Thomas, creator of The Midnight Archive  
• John Troyer, deputy director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath 
• Artist Zoe Bellof 
• Photographer Shannon Taggart  
• Richard Harris, "collector of death" 
• Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press  
• Ross MacFarlane of The Wellcome Library  
• Dániel Margócsy, professor of early modern history at Hunter College  
• Death in Mexico Scholar Salvador Olguin
• Bookmaker Daniel Smith  
• Gemma Angel, academic, writer, tattooist  
• Vadim Kosmos of The Last Tuesday Society 
• Michelle Legro of Lapham's Quarterly  
• Mike Johns, Social Psychologist
• Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy   
• Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints

Again, this will be a very special, very different, and very beautiful book. Please, consider supporting this project, and helping to actualize a world in which this kind of niche, high-quality publication can afford to exist; you can do so--by ordering a copy of your very own for only $25!--by clicking here.