THE ABOMINABLE MR. SEABROOK LAUNCH
Featuring Joe Ollmann
Thursday, January 26th, 2016, 7pm
@ The Beguiling, 319 College Street (NEW LOCATION!)
Free to attend.
Join cartoonist Joe Ollmann as he discusses his latest graphic tour de force: The Abominable Mr. Seabrook. In Seabrook, Ollmann chronicles the trials and tribulations of notorious journalist William Buehler Seabrook: famed member of the Lost Generation known for participating in voodoo ceremonies, riding camels cross the Sahara desert, communing with cannibals, and popularizing the term “zombie” in the West. Exposing both the highs and extreme lows of a turbulent life, Ollmann often weaves in Seabrook’s own words and those of his biographers. This biographical account, however, posits Seabrook the believer versus Seabrook the exploiter, leaving the reader to consider where one ends and the other begins.
This event will take place in, or very near to, The Beguiling’s new space at 319 College Street. See you there!
ABOUT JOE OLLMANN:
Joe Ollmann lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He won the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2007.
ABOUT THE ABOMINABLE MR. SEABROOK
In the early twentieth century, travel writing represented the desire for the expanding bourgeoisie to experience the exotic cultures of the world past their immediate surroundings. Journalist William Buehler Seabrook was emblematic of this trend – participating in voodoo ceremonies, riding camels cross the Sahara desert, communing with cannibals and most notably, popularizing the term “zombie” in the West. A string of his bestselling books show an engaged, sympathetic gentleman hoping to share these strange, hidden delights with the rest of the world. He was willing to go deeper than any outsider had before. But, of course, there was a dark side. Seabrook was a barely functioning alcoholic who was deeply obsessed with bondage and the so-called mystical properties of pain and degradation. His life was a series of traveling highs and drunken lows; climbing on and falling off the wagon again and again. What led the popular and vivid writer to such a sad state?
Cartoonist Joe Ollmann spent seven years researching Seabrook’s life, accessing long neglected archives in order to piece together the peripatetic life of a forgotten American writer. Often weaving in Seabrook’s own words and those of his biographers, Ollmann posits Seabrook the believer versus Seabrook the exploiter, and leaves the reader to consider where one ends and the other begins.
