Thread: Halloween in America

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HALLOWEEN IN AMERICA

By Stuart Schneider
Schiffer Publishing

I have to say I was very dissappointed with this book. I read several reviews on this where praise was being given and even read it being called "the bible for Halloween enthusiasts." I believe Amazon even has it at a 5 star rating. Personally, Id given it a 2.5 out of 5. It is a very nice reference book, but thats all it is. A reference book for vintage Halloween merchandise. The majority of the book is a pictured catalog of early 1900 to 1950s Halloween items. Postcards, decorations, tabletop items, etc. The photos seem to come from the same source, which kind of made everything very pigeonholed as far as variety. At the beginning of the book you have brief "histories" of the different aspects of the Halloween holiday. However they read as if the author simply heard the different folktales and histories and put them in here like cliffnotes. Nothing new, nothing interesting added. Very basic textbook descriptions. I found that to be very boring. Another thing that kind of irked me was the seeming lack of knowledge from anything post 1960. Like I said, this prety much a vintage oriented book. The 70's, 80's and 90's and are barely mentioned and are basically treated as a foot note or after thought. The feeling that I got from the author was that he had no real interest in the later decades and therefore didnt bother to do much research on them. When he does mention these times its as if he didnt even live them. Like say, me trying to give stories about the 1950's. It was very disconnected with modern culture. The one thing that really struck me and kind of irritated me, and some may roll their eyes or laugh, was the fact that the author misspelled Freddy Krueger! (Freddie Kruger) Really? (His character was mentioned when talking briefly about 80's costumes.)

Overall, if you are are a vintage Halloween collector, Im sure you will enjoy what this book has to offer. If you are a general Halloween enthusiast or are looking for a nice book on Halloween through the decades, this is not the book to get. The title, in my opinion, is very misleading. Perhaps a better title would have been, Halloween Items of the Early 1900's.

2.5 out of 5

thx for the tip...i was going to buy this book..now ill c if i can find from the library!!