Books bound in human skin

[UM-Bot]

Brown University's library boasts an unusual anatomy book. Tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, its cover looks and feels no different from any other fine leather.

But here's its secret: the book is bound in human skin.A number of prestigious libraries -- including Harvard University's -- have such books in their collections.

View: Full Article | Source: Boston.com

[blackbeginnings]

[ wouldn't it be really hard to get the skin off in one piece and without it splitting? i think it was a good idea and made use of (dare i say) a material in constant supply which otherwise is wasted. It does seem a bit macarbe no, like when the nazis used human skin for lampshades etc and they preferred skin with tatoos. Does it actually smell like leather as well as look like it? i wonder what other uses there are for human skin

[Beryth]

if i am not wrong the necromicon was in skin too however if it's exist but that true skin was better then paper.

[_Nyx_]

Fascinating is it may be, I'm kind of doubting I'd like a book like that on my shelf....

As far as other uses for human skin...I believe it was during the Vietnam War (and probably other times, too) that skin was used for lampshades.......now that had to smell a bit funny....

[STIX]

thats disturbing... but yet, I have a leather jacket.

[__Kratos__]

If it works... why not? People are always telling use not to waste stuff.

I wonder why it is considered "cruel" today... I mean it's skin, not like they went on the street to skin some poor child. It's dead and over with so... hmm... curious choice of words.

[gothikchile13]

If it works... why not? People are always telling use not to waste stuff.

I wonder why it is considered "cruel" today... I mean it's skin, not like they went on the street to skin some poor child. It's dead and over with so... hmm... curious choice of words.

It's along the same lines as cannibalism. Could you bring yourself to eat your mother? I mean, if she's dead, why waste it?

--Jon

[00000000000000000000000000]

Does it actually smell like leather as well as look like it?

I doubt it. Having burnt myself on both a soldering iron and a home-made plasma torch (), I know that burnt human flesh does not smell like delicious steak. I suspect the same goes for leather.

[SpikeJ]

if i am not wrong the necromicon was in skin too however if it's exist but that true skin was better then paper.

Ha I was just thinking the same thing. but what seems the wierdest to me is that the book even has a face like the necronomicon

[00000000000000000000000000]

Ha I was just thinking the same thing. but what seems the wierdest to me is that the book even has a face like the necronomicon

I believe the picture is not one of the actual book.

Edit: Link to a picture of a human skin-bound book. http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/highwayman.html

Different one: http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/pa...ls/fx6v1mbs.jpg

Edited January 9, 2006 by angrycrustacean

[Kryso]

How strange!

[__Kratos__]

It's along the same lines as cannibalism. Could you bring yourself to eat your mother? I mean, if she's dead, why waste it?

--Jon

I know... it is a waste. People talk about world hunger with all these corpses around. Bunch of whiners.

For your information Ritual Cannibalism is still practiced today by millions weekly. Blood of Christ... "amen"... Body of Christ... "amen"... I bet Christians don't mind though.

[hamellr]

The tanning of the skin into leather removes most of the smell. If you burned it, it would smell just like burning leather (technically burning tannin.)

And yes, the Necronomicon was supposedly bound in human skin.

To answer the other question, Nazi germany used the skin, bones, etc of Jews killed in the concentration camps for a lot of things. Skin became leather and lamp shades. Bones were used to make soap, the remains were fed to dogs.

[00000000000000000000000000]

To answer the other question, Nazi germany used the skin, bones, etc of Jews killed in the concentration camps for a lot of things. Skin became leather and lamp shades. Bones were used to make soap, the remains were fed to dogs.

The soap, at least, was debunked.

[Doctor_Strangelove]

Isn't that just special. When I read this I literally almost puked. That's just nasty, i'll never look at any kind of leather the same way again.

Gross

[Claizen]

if i am not wrong the necromicon was in skin too however if it's exist but that true skin was better then paper.

I was thinking that too!!

[Elfstone810]

Ever heard of the "Red Barn Murder"? Back in England in, gosh, seventeenth century? Eighteenth century? A woman with a reputation for being somewhat "loose" left her village to meet a man she was supposedly going to marry. A couple of years later her step-mother (who was barely older than she was) started telling people that she dreamed her step-daughter had been murdered in a red barn by her fiancee. Some men went and dug in the barn and sure enough they found the woman's body. (I *think* the victim's name was Marie or Maria and that the killer's name was William, but I'm going on memory here. I'll look for a link in a few minutes.)

Even back then there were a lot of skeptics who believed (and I think this is likely myself) that the step-mother was a party to the murder and was blackmailing the killer. When he stopped playing, she found a way to give him away without incriminating herself.

In any case, it was a sensational murder. People all over England followed the accounts of the trial. Little ceramic red barns were sold as souvenirs and people flocked to see the real one. In one incident, a man lay down in the still-open grave to "see how she felt". Some women came in while he was there and he jumped up, embarrassed, and scared them into screaming hysterics.

The killer was convicted and sentenced to hang. They sold tickets (I think) to the hanging itself, and afterwards the hangman sold the rope by the inch (a fairly common practice back then). His body was given to "vivisectionists" to study. They dissected him and, again, tickets were sold to allow people to come through and see his remains. The persistent story that his skull was stolen several years later by a doctor, who replaced it with another skull and had the original polished to look like tortoiseshell, may not be true. What *is* true, though, is that a book was written about the murder, trial, and execution, and bound in the dead man's skin. I believe one of the few copies (how many books can you bind with one man's skin?) is still in the British Museum.

Edit: Okay, I found some links. I got a few facts wrong, but I was pretty close going from memory. (For one thing, the murder was in the nineteenth century. I'd thought it was earlier.)

This link tells the basic story.

This link discusses some of the collecting fever that spread about this murder.

And this link has actual pictures of a lot of the murder relics, including the book bound in William Corder's skin.

Edited January 10, 2006 by Elfstone810

[Glacies]

i think it was a good idea and made use of (dare i say) a material in constant supply which otherwise is wasted. It does seem a bit macarbe no, like when the nazis used human skin for lampshades etc and they preferred skin with tatoos. Does it actually smell like leather as well as look like it? i wonder what other uses there are for human skin

well, I for one have an entire living room to upholster....

[__Kratos__]

Edit: Okay, I found some links. I got a few facts wrong, but I was pretty close going from memory. (For one thing, the murder was in the nineteenth century. I'd thought it was earlier.)

This link tells the basic story.

This link discusses some of the collecting fever that spread about this murder.

And this link has actual pictures of a lot of the murder relics, including the book bound in William Corder's skin.

Wow. That is twisted and awesome... thanks for the links Elfstone. Kind of screwed up they kept his scalp with his ear still on it...

[Yelekiah]

They found human leather to be relatively cheap, durable and waterproof, Hartman said.

I'm sure this will give inspiration to a few sadistic psychopaths.

[__Kratos__]

I'm sure this will give inspiration to a few sadistic psychopaths.

Well... Ed Gein did somethings with skin.

[Yelekiah]

Didn't some Nazis have furniture made out of skin? I forget who specifically.

[__Kratos__]

Didn't some Nazis have furniture made out of skin? I forget who specifically.

Yeah, I've heard it...

Did a search quick and got this site: Buchenwald Atrocities

Edited January 10, 2006 by __Kratos__

[Yelekiah]

Ah yes, that's the one. ty for the site.

[Elfstone810]

Yeah, Ed Gein started out by graverobbing the bodies of women. He made all kinds of things from their skin and bones, and even wore their skin like clothes. Made bowls out of skulls and things like that. Then he went on the killing at least one (or was it two?) women. Norman Bates in Psycho was loosely based on him, and also (am I right here?) the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.