Erika Mailman

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Erika Mailman is an American author and journalist. [1] Mailman was born in the United States, growing up in Vermont and attending both Colby College and the University of Arizona, Tucson. She later began writing a column for the Montclarion edition of the Contra Costa Times. [2] She has lived in Oakland, California for the last 7 years. [3] She has taught at Chabot College in Hayward, California. [4]

Contents

Mailman, born in Vermont to a German-American family, is the descendant of a woman who twice stood trial for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials in 1692. [5]

Mailman's debut novel The Witch's Trinity reportedly sold for six-figures. [6] It is set in a medieval German town in 1487 and examines the struggle between Christianity and pagan tradition through the story of a Christian woman on trial for witchcraft. [6]

Reception

Critical reception for Mailman's work has been mostly positive, [7] with The Witch's Trinity gaining praise from Marie Claire and Boston.com. [8] [9] The Isle of Man Today criticized The Witch's Trinity, stating that it "is unsophisticated in its good versus evil premise". [10] The novel was a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007, and a Bram Stoker Award finalist.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Witchcraft Practice of magic, usually to cause harm

Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have attacked their own community, and often to have communed with evil beings. It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter-magic, which could be provided by cunning folk or folk healers. Suspected witches were also intimidated, banished, attacked or killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished, if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. In some regions, many of those accused of witchcraft were folk healers or midwives. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment.

Witch-hunt Search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, or mass hysteria

A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern period or about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.

Salem witch trials Legal proceedings in Massachusetts, 1692–1693

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail.

Isobel Gowdie Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662

Isobel Gowdie was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662. Scant information is available about her age or life and, although she was probably executed in line with the usual practice, it is uncertain whether this was the case or if she was allowed to return to the obscurity of her former life as a cottar’s wife. Her detailed testimony, apparently achieved without the use of violent torture, provides one of the most comprehensive insights into European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.

Matthew Hopkins English witch hunter (1620–1647)

Matthew Hopkins was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, and was mainly active in East Anglia.

Heyday is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California.

Goody Ann Glover was the last person to be hanged in Boston as a witch, although the Salem witch trials in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, occurred mainly in 1692.

Sarah Osborne (also variously spelled Osbourne, Osburne, or Osborn; née Warren, formerly Prince, was a colonist in the Massachusetts Bay colony and one of the first women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Sarah Osborn was suggested to be a witch by Sarah Good. Good said she had been tormenting the girls.

Susannah Martin was one of fourteen women executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of colonial Massachusetts.

Philip Heselton British author

Philip Heselton is a retired British conservation officer, a Wiccan initiate, and a writer on the subjects of Wicca, Paganism, and Earth mysteries. He is best known for two books, Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration, which gather historical evidence surrounding the New Forest coven and the origins of Gardnerian Wicca.

The Witches of Warboys were Alice Samuel and her family, who were accused of, and executed for witchcraft between 1589 and 1593 in the village of Warboys, in the Fens of England. It was one of many witch trials in the early modern period, but scholar Barbara Rosen claims it "attracted probably more notice than any other in the sixteenth century".

Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials

Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692

Bury St Edmunds witch trials Witch trials

The Bury St Edmunds witch trials were a series of trials conducted intermittently between the years 1599 and 1694 in the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England.

Prosecutions for the crime of witchcraft reached a highpoint from 1580 to 1630 during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion, when an estimated 50,000 people were executed, with some regions burning those convicted at the stake, of whom roughly 80% were women, and most often over the age of 40.

Pendle witches English witch hunt and trial in 1612

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

Margo Burns is a historian specializing in the Salem witch trials and related events, especially those in North Andover. She is an Associate Editor and Project Manager of the book Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt. She resides in New Hampshire.

Grace White Sherwood (1660–1740), called the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia.

Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50

The great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50 was a series of witch trials in Scotland. It is one of five major hunts identified in early modern Scotland and it probably saw the most executions in a single year.

Bute witches

The Bute witches were six Scottish women accused of witchcraft and interrogated in the parish of Rothesay on Bute during the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62. The Privy Council granted a Commission of Justiciary for a local trial to be held and four of the women – believed by historians to be Margaret McLevin, Margaret McWilliam, Janet Morrison and Isobell McNicoll – were executed in 1662; a fifth may have died while incarcerated. One woman, Jonet NcNicoll, escaped from prison before she could be executed but when she returned to the island in 1673 the sentence was implemented.

References

  1. ↑ Villalon, Oscar (23 December 2007). "Bay Area authors' books among best of '07". SF Gate. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Alluring Gold Rush Mystery Offers Untold Story". Alameda Sun. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Heyday — Erika Mailman". Archived from the original on 2016-06-04. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
  4. ↑ "Erika Mailman at Chabot College - RateMyProfessors.com". www.ratemyprofessors.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-19.
  5. ↑ "Hodder stakes claim on witch trials tale". Bookseller; 8/17/2007, Issue 5294, p11-11, 1/8p
  6. 1 2 Matthew Thornton. "Deals". Publishers Weekly, 2/13/2006, Vol. 253, Issue 7
  7. ↑ "New book a delightful romp through Oakland". Oakland Tribune. 13 April 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  8. ↑ White, Diane (11 November 2007). "Don't sit under that apple tree". Boston.com. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "Review: The Witch's Trinity". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on 8 December 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  10. ↑ "BOOK: The Witch's Trinity". Isle of Man Today. Archived from the original on 8 January 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  11. ↑ "Oakland hills' past unearthed". Oakland Tribune. 29 March 2004. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  12. ↑ Maury, Laurel (27 September 2007). "Review: Erika Mailman's 'The Witch's Trinity'". SF Gate. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  13. ↑ Mcmurtrie, John (20 June 2010). "Summer reading recommendations". The San Francisco Chronicle.

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