The Vampire: His Kith and Kin by Montague Summers

The Vampire: His Kith and Kin by Montague Summers, published in 1928. First edition. A seminal and extensively researched study of vampirism in European folklore, literature, and demonological tradition, in which Summers advances the controversial thesis of the vampire as a genuine supernatural phenomenon rather than a purely symbolic or psychological construct. Drawing upon ecclesiastical records, regional folklore, judicial accounts, and early literary sources, the work traces the vampire belief through Eastern and Western Europe, examining the persistence of revenant traditions across centuries. Summers addresses subjects including exhumation accounts, methods of identifying and destroying the vampire, burial rites and protective customs, folkloric distinctions between revenants and other nocturnal entities, and the relationship between vampirism, witchcraft, and demonic agency. The volume also explores literary treatments of the vampire and the gradual transformation of the figure from regional superstition into a broader cultural and occult archetype. Summers approaches the subject with characteristic seriousness and theological conviction, situating vampirism within a wider framework of diabolism and preternatural manifestation. An influential contribution to early 20th-century occult scholarship and vampire literature. Hardcover. With original dust jacket. A stunning copy.