The Unidentified & Creatures of the Outer Edge Paperback – January 18, 2006

As with Stan Gordon's Excellent Book SILENT INVASION, this too has plenty of research and High Strangeness. THIS is one of my favorite reads and willscare the living YOU KNOW WHAT out of you.Growing up in northwest Indiana in the early seventies, there was plenty of spooky going around and I remember being a young teen when the MOMO story hit the news.then LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK blew my mind and scared me really good. My night time walk home past the woods still gives me the shivers to remember how frightened I was hearing every twig snap and branches moving. I just jogged a memory of being out camping with two friends in the state of Michigan during the early eighties and we were staying in a older small type trailer, on the edge of the woods. IT was pitch black nighttime and both my friends left to use the bathroom in the larger trailer where the parents of the one were staying. I waited for them to get back and seconds turned to minutes.... and then I started hearing IT in the woods. First small movements and crunching of leaves..... then quite as if someone was slowly and quietly sneaking up. I was frozen in there, too afraid to move....Still my friends did not come back.... what the hell was taking them so long? then a definite branch crack sound right outside the back of the trailer.THAT DID IT, I flew out of there and across the small field to the well lighted trailer filled with people.My stupid friends had been chatting awhile with the family when I had asked, where were you guys?!as we said our good nights to go back to the spooky trailer, there was a loud crash.The parents turned on the floodlights and a huge tree had been pushed on top of the little spook trailer, denting the roof and side.Had I stayed in there just a few more minutes, that would have been me in there all alone experiencing THAT! I am sure I would have had a heart attack.We stayed with the parents in their trailer for the rest of the camping trip. FREAKED me OUT but good.This book brings you true stories like that. Hair raising indeed and not for the faint of heart. Heck, not even for the strong of heart.beware, you will be SCARED.

This book is actually a compilation of cases of sightings of and experiences with bizarre unknown creatures going back to the 70's. Written by Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, two of the best writer-researchers on cryptozoology and UFOs, it is a must-read for anyone interested in this type of material. Great book.

I actually read Creatures of the Outer Edge back around 1972 or so. I thought it was fascinating. Back then I read lots of books related to the supernatural, UFOs, etc. This book was my favorite. I plan to purchase it and read it again. I highly recommend this book.

Myself

Those old enough to remember the classic, but short lived television show 'Kolchak, the Night Stalker' will fall in love with this book. Jerome Clark never fails to deliver, I would have paid three times the price for this book, it's that good. And unlike most authors who delve into these nefarious realms, Mr. Clark does not come off as if he forgot to take his psych meds this morning. I've said it about his other books and I'll repeat it here, reading Clark's books is like reading a stack of police reports, with Rod Serling and Karl Kolchak were the investigating officers. This book reminds me a lot of John Keel's 'Strange Creatures From Time and Space', which incidentally just came back in print (raggedy used copies were selling for hundreds of dollars prior to thius reprint). Lastly, Amazon sells the entire Kolchak series for around $20, so give yourself a lovely present and buy both of the above books and these dvds. The weekend is coming up so cancel that date and have this package second-day delivered. Pull down the shades, dead bolt the doors, order a pizza, and pour yourself a tall glass of beer (I prefer diet A&W myself) You might keep that pepper spray and baseball bat by the door in case that pizza kid is a shape-shifting mothman or MIB. Slide the money under the door, and don't forget a generous gratuity.

While I have some respect for Loren for the research he has done in his limited travels one thing that does bother me about him in the Paranormal camp is that he is a fortean (paranormalist).Loren is a paranormalist when it comes to cryptids such as Bigfoot but has an aversion to coming forward being afraid of losing his fan base.This begs the question, "How can we ever get to the truth with so many pretenders in the field?"This book was written at a time when Loren was much more honest in his presentations, and research.

It was nice to find these two books, both of which I've searched for in second-hand stores for decades. For my taste, "The Unidentified" goes on too much about fairy lore, but "Creatures of the Outer Edge" leaves the fairies behind. In both books, Clark and Coleman argue their version of the notion, one espoused most notably by Jacques Vallee and the late John Keel, that the contradictions and dreamlike quality of many mysterious encounters preclude their being understood in prosaic terms. The elusiveness of UFOs and cryptids, for instance, suggests that they're something other than spacecraft from other worlds or flesh-and-blood creatures. Clark and Coleman have become less certain of this since writing these books, but still consider it an idea worth keeping in mind."The Unidentified" and "Creatures of the Outer Edge" belong in the relatively slight category of books that discuss the paranormal rationally rather than treating it as mere titillation or wandering into nonsensical claims and conclusions. Both together and separately, they deserve their cult status. Admirers of John Keel will understand when I say that the books are comparable to Keel at his best and more cogently structured, but not as chilling or fascinating.