The Magic Island

The Magic Island

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, 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."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. 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. 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.The book has been credited with popularizing the image of zombies as products of Vodou and witchcraft: it inspired the 1932 New York stage play Zombie, written by Kenneth Webb, and influenced the 1932 horror film White Zombie, directed by Victor Halperin; the latter is widely considered the first feature-length zombie film.In 2016, The Magic Island was reprinted by Dover Publications, with an introduction written by George A. Romero.

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