The Vampire Gallery : A Who's Who of the Undead Book

After the tremendous success of The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Undead, (more than 100,000 copies sold), Visible Ink Press was inundated by consumer response cards from readers stating not only how much they loved the book, but that they wanted more, more, more of anything having to do with vampires. Visible Ink responded by publishing VideoHound's Vampires on Videos, a guide to vampire movies. But the author of these titles, Dr. J. Gordon Melton, felt that what vampire fans really needed was a "Vampire's Who's Who." The result is The Vampire Gallery: A Who's Who of the Undead.

While The Vampire Book covers the entire realm of vampire phenomenon, including entries on terms, places, organizations and topics associated with vampires, The Vampire Gallery focuses purely on the vampire characters themselves.

Covering nearly 350 vampires, along with the most important of their archrivals, the vampire-hunters, The Vampire Gallery presents biographies of characters from fiction, film, television, poetry, comic books and juvenile literature. By exploring all of the most popular vampire characters, the book investigates vampire myths, highlights advances in the genre, and covers the unique contributions made by authors, screenwriters, actors and directors who, in the last 100 years, have brought the undead to life.

According to Dr. Melton, the book has three purposes: to entertain by "seeing all these different vampires brought together in one volume for the first time;" to introduce the reader to new vampires that may not have been encountered in the past; and to further document the rise and evolution of the contemporary vampire myth.

The book begins with a lengthy essay on the "King of the Undead," Dracula, who started it all and who is "unquestionably the most influential vampire of the 20th century," according to Dr. Melton. Explored at length is the fascinating metamorphosis from Bram Stoker's original 1897 description of a repulsive and terrifying being, to the increasingly more romantic and attractive film depictions of the 20th century.

Laid out in A to Z format, The Vampire Gallery continues with biographies of both the most well known vampire characters -- Lestat, Lord Ruthven, Carmilla Karnstein, Barnabus Collins, Nick Knight -- as well as the more obscure. The book also covers certain mortals who have befriended vampires (such as Dr. Natalie Lambert from the television show Forever Knight) and important groups of vampires such as the Theatre des Vampires from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.

So if you thought Dracula was the be-all and end-all of vampires, get ready to meet 350 of his descendents. We guarantee a bloody good time. Comments from the media:

"...the leading chronicler of religious movements in the U.S." --The Los Angeles Times

"Melton has traveled almost everywhere in the U.S. and witnessed the rituals of practically every religion. He worshiped with the late Jim Jones long before Jonestown and with the Church of All Worlds, nature lovers who revere boa constrictors and crocodiles." --People Magazine