Friday the 13th has inspired centuries of superstition and storytelling, so what better time to dive into the creepiest corners of the Penn Press catalog?
In honor of Friday, March 13, 2026, we’re highlighting a selection of our books that examine all things eerie and macabre: witches, demons, supernatural creatures, ghost lore, murder narratives, and visions of the afterlife. Drawing on disciplines such as history, literature, and religious studies, these titles bring scholarly insight to humanity’s enduring fascination with death, darkness, and the unknown. Whether you’re researching the history of these phenomena and our belief in them or simply looking for an uncanny addition to your reading list, we invite you to explore the strange side of scholarship and the things that go bump in the archives.
Use code PENN-FRIDAY during checkout to save 40% on all titles in the below collection from now through Friday, March 20 (and don’t forget—orders over $40 receive free shipping!).
Plus, you can save $5 on an individual subscription to our journal Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft when you use code MRW5 in the journals shopping cart.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 1
Biblical and Pagan Societies
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 2
Ancient Greece and Rome
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 3
The Middle Ages
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 4
The Period of the Witch Trials
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 5
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 6
The Twentieth Century
The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims
A Medieval Woman Between Demons and Saints
A Sanguinary Tale
Anatomy, Sanctity, and the Catholic Church in Early Modern Europe
Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy
Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism
Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic
The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell
Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500
Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors
The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture
Science, Space, and Crime Fiction in France
The Terror That Comes in the Night
An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions
Mary Shelley and the Postapocalyptic Imagination
Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child
Political Philosophy in "Frankenstein"
Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700
A Documentary History
Studies in European Literature and Thought, 14-17
Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America
The Grotesque and the Gigantic in Renaissance Landscape Design
Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood
Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany
Bodies, Medicine, and Causation in the Literature of Late Medieval England
"Yetzer Hara" and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity
Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes
Witchcraft in Early Modern England
Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz
A Study in Folk Religion
