The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black [Hardcover]

An extraordinary biography. A gallery of astonishing work. The legacy of a madman.

Philadelphia, the late 1870s. A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages—and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts—mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs—were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind?
 
The Resurrectionistoffers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from a childhood spent exhuming corpses through his medical training, his travels with carnivals, and the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus:The Codex Extinct Animalia, aGray’s Anatomyfor mythological beasts—dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus—all rendered in meticulously detailed anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman.The Resurrectionisttells his story.Named as Part of Bustle's Scariest Book in Your State for Pennsylvania.

“Disturbingly lovely . . . The Resurrectionist is itself a cabinet of curiosities, stitching history and mythology and sideshow into an altogether different creature. Deliciously macabre and beautifully grotesque.”—Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus

“Color us captivated. This collection seems a treat for anatomy enthusiasts and creaturephiles alike. —io9

“E.B. Hudspeth’sThe Resurrectionistis PFA (that’s pretty freaking amazing).”—ComicsBeat.com
 
“These detailed and fantastical drawings will intrigue any reader curious about the hypolc