John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies
"Coleman has produced the most complete overview of Mothman and its minions -- the scariest family of monsters on Earth."

Book Description
Mothman and Other Curious Encounters is an intriguing look at the legend behind The Mothman Prophecies, the new motion picture featuring Richard Gere, Debra Messing, Will Patton and Laura Linney. A new Hollywood blockbuster, an amazing companion documentary, and thousands of web pages in its honor--what's all the fuss about? In a word--Mothman! On November 15, 1966, this huge, red-eyed creature with wings appeared over Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Thus began thirteen months of otherworldly mystery, madness, and mayhem for the people of Point Pleasant, culminating in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, which left 46 dead. But contrary to popular belief, Mothman is not unique. Here for the first time, investigator Loren Coleman looks at the precursors of Mothman, like the Flatwoods Monster of 1952, then brings the story up to date, detailing the sightings of the spawn of Mothman, some as recent as November 2001. Coleman also examines the impact on investigations into the unknown by John Keel, the newsman who spend a year in Point Pleasant looking into the Mothman story and lived to write about it. MOTHMAN AND OTHER CURIOUS ENCOUNTERS is certain to jolt your placid preconceived notion of the nature of the physical universe.

Download Description
An intriguing look at the legend behind THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, the motion picture featuring RICHARD GERE, DEBRA MESSING, WILL PATTON and LAURA LINNEY.

About the Author
LOREN COLEMAN of Portland, Maine, is the author of fourteen previous books, including his recent popular and critically acclaimed Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. He is an acknowledged expert in the field of cryptozoology and fortean phenomena investigations.

Excerpted from Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren Coleman. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
  The wire service ticker was spitting out the bulletin… Location: Point Pleasant, West Virginia Dateline: November 15, 1966 Two young couples reported to Mason County sheriff’s department tonight they have had a curious encounter with a monster. “It was shaped like a man, but bigger. Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded on its back,” eyewitness Roger Scarberry told Deputy Millard Halstead.  Roger’s wife, Linda finished his thought: “But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big red eyes, like automobile reflectors.” The Scarberrys and another couple, Steve and Mary Mallete, had seen something strange at the abandoned World War II ammunition dump, known locally as the TNT area. “For a minute we could only stare at it. Then it just turned and sort of shuffled towards the open door of the old power plant. We didn’t wait around.” Roger continued. Thus began America’s first notice of a series of sightings of a strange something that would be quickly named “Mothman.” A month after the publicity began, a journalist innocently showed up in town to live among the locals, hoping to understand what was happening. During the next thirteen months, he would make five trips to Point Pleasant, staying for many weeks scrutinizing the case. The investigator’s name is John A. Keel. His experiences appeared in a series of articles and in his book on the subject, The Mothman Prophecies.  Keel has been linked forever with Mothman, and he even told me recently that people can’t think of him without thinking of Mothman, although his life is much more diverse than this single group of reports. This “typecasting” will continue, as a fictional contemporary version of John Keel appears as reporter John Klein, played by Richard Gere, in the new major motion picture from Screen Gems, also starring Laura Linney, Will Patton, Debra Messing, and directed by Mark Pellington. The impact and timing of Mothman-related events continues to amaze. Take for example, Sinema Productions' plans to interview John Keel in Point Pleasant for their 2002 documentary on Mothman. They were to fly Keel from his Manhattan home to West Virginia, to do the taping. But Keel never made it. His flight was cancelled. The date he was to fly to Mothman country—September 11, 2001. Keel’s book and Pellington’s movie help us move these events into context. But how can we understand them? How can we fit this entity into human consciousness, let alone Homo sapiens’ history and experience? Perhaps we should merely throw aside this weird wonder as a hoax, a lover’s lane illusion, a misidentification, and go on with our lives. But we can’t. The incidents in West Virginia, we begin to discover, do not live in a vacuum. As you will learn in this book, Mothman may have more to tell us than we could have ever imagined.  More about Mothman later, but first let’s put some of this weirdness in perspective and examine some of Mothman’s precursors.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A new Hollywood blockbuster, an amazing companion documentary, and thousands of web pages in its honor--what's all the fuss about? In a word--Mothman!

On November 15, 1966, this huge, red-eyed creature with wings appeared over Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Thus began thirteen months of otherworldly mystery, madness, and mayhem for the people of Point Pleasant, culminating in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, which left 46 dead.

But contrary to popular belief, Mothman is not unique. Here for the first time, investigator Loren Coleman looks at the precursors of Mothman, like the Flatwoods Monster of 1952, then brings the story up to date, detailing the sightings of the spawn of Mothman, some as recent as September 2001. Coleman also examines the impact on investigations into the unknown by John Keel, the newsman who spend a year in Point Pleasant looking into the Mothman story and lived to write about it.

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters is certain to jolt your placid preconceived notion of the nature of the physical universe.