Sympathy for the Devil: the Bibliography

Posted because I have received multiple requests for it, please enjoy this bibliography of the books I read to research “Sympathy for the Devil,” which just had a terrific run at the seventh annual Twin Cities Horror Festival! Come and see my “Demons of the Deep Blue Sea” at that selfsame festival, Tuesday 10/30 at 10pm, Friday 11/2 at 7pm, and Saturday 11/3 at 10pm!

Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels. Free Press, 1994.
An incredibly comprehensive resource on the absurdly enormous Christian angel-listing tradition; there are far more good angels than fallen ones, which is frankly incomprehensible to me, but plenty of the latter are still to be found.

LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible. Avon, 1976.
LaVey is a bloviating gasbag with the mind of a 14-year-old, and a cryptofascist besides, but it is an interesting perspective at the very least, and his extolling of the virtues of passion does have a certain allure.

Lehner, Ernst and Lehner, Johanna. Devils, Demons & Witchcraft. Dover, 1971.
Various old woodcuts and drawings of the Satanic, widely varied and endlessly fascinating.

Neret, Gilles. Devils. Taschen, 2006.
A lovely little picture book of historical paintings and illustrations; not much worthwhile accompanying text, but then depictions of the Devil are an important window to…depictions…of the Devil. You see what I mean.

Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History. Cornell University Press, 1992.
Russell is generally considered the main modern authority on the history of Satan, and rightly so, though be advised that he goes on and on about theodicy, which is the most boring thing in the universe, and that he believes the Devil is literally real and he’s mad that people don’t. Proceed with caution.

Turner, Alice K. The History of Hell. Mariner Books, 1995.
Probably my favorite on this list; an engagingly written, comprehensive-but-fast-paced history of the Bad Place Down Below in the western canon.

Van Scott, Miriam. The Encyclopedia of Hell: A Comprehensive Survey of the Underworld. Thomas Dunne Books, 2015.
Another invaluable resource; it’s a little bit too shocked by the heavy metal rock music, but is otherwise quite comprehensive, with a nice sampling of non-western underworlds as well.