Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman (born July 12, 1947) is an American cryptozoologist who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including the pseudoscience and subculture of cryptozoology.[1]

This article is about the cryptozoologist. For the science-fiction writer, see Loren L. Coleman.
Loren Coleman
Born (1947-07-12) July 12, 1947
Norfolk, Virginia, United States
NationalityAmerican
SubjectCryptozoology, Forteana, folklore, psychology
Notable worksMysterious America
The Copycat Effect
Years active1960–present
Website
www.lorencoleman.com

Early life

Coleman was born in Norfolk, Virginia, grew up in Decatur, Illinois and graduated in 1965 from MacArthur High School.[2] He studied anthropology and zoology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale,[3] and psychiatric social work at the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. He did further studies in doctoral-level anthropology at Brandeis University and sociology at the University of New Hampshire. Coleman taught at New England universities from 1980 to 2004, having also been a senior researcher at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Policy from 1983 to 1996, before retiring from teaching to write, lecture, and consult.

Cryptozoology

Coleman writes on popular culture, animal mysteries, folklore, and cryptozoology. An editor of the Skeptical Inquirer said, "among monster hunters, Loren's one of the more reputable, but I'm not convinced that what cryptozoologists seek is actually out there."[4] He has appeared on television and radio interviews about cryptids. He has written articles and books on cryptozoology and other Fortean topics. He was a publicity consultant on The Mothman Prophecies.[3]

Coleman has carried out fieldwork throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, regarding sightings, trace evidence, and Native peoples' traditions of Sasquatch/Windigo/Bigfoot. He has written on Yeti and Bigfoot expedition sponsor Tom Slick and appeared on NPR discussing the death of Grover Krantz.[5]


Paraview Press introduced a series of books, "Loren Coleman Presents" in 2004. Coleman wrote introductions to volumes in the series.

Coleman contributed to the exhibition "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale," shown at Bates College Museum of Art (June 24 - October 8, 2006) and at the H & R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute (October 28 - December 20, 2006). Coleman is also a contributor/coauthor of the 2006 Bates exhibition catalogue and book, Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale (JRP/Ringier Books, Switzerland, 2006). He also wrote the essay "Cryptids" for Alexis Rockman. (Monacelli Press, 2005).

Academic writers Darryl Caterine and John W. Morehead criticized Coleman's assumption that a 1955 incident in which an Indiana woman was pulled underwater by something she did not see was caused by a half human, half fish creature called a "merbeing" as an example of "how cryptozoologists think about science fiction and its relationship to the natural world".[6]

Science writer Sharon A. Hill disagrees with Coleman's assertions that cryptozoology is "scientific and skeptically minded". Hill criticized Coleman's Crytomundo website, saying that members "show blatant disdain for scientists and investigators critical of their claims".[7]

In reviewing a book by Grover Krantz, Skeptical Inquirer editor Robert Boston said of Coleman and Jerome Clark's book Creatures of the Outer Edge, "Clark and Coleman are every bit as gullible as Krantz, but at least they know how to spin a monster yarn so that the reader gets an occasional chill".[8]

International Cryptozoology Museum

Coleman established a Cryptozoology Museum in 2003 in Portland, Maine.[3][9] The first downtown location for the museum opened in November 2009, occupying the rear of The Green Hand Bookshop, a Portland general used bookshop specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of Gothic fiction.[10] On October 30, 2011, two years after moving onto Congress Street, it re-opened in a much larger space around the corner at 11 Avon Street, although it was still located in the Trelawny Building.[11] The museum then moved again in the summer of 2016, opening in July on Thompson's Point, where it resides now.

The Copycat Effect

Coleman has a master's degree in psychiatric social work and was a consultant for the Maine Youth Suicide Program for nearly a decade. He authored several manuals and trained over 40,000 professionals and paraprofessionals statewide.[4] A specific concern continues to be cases of murder-suicide among the young as well as the possibility of clusters (e.g., teen suicides, school shootings, workplace violence, and domestic terrorism) and the influence of media coverage,[12] leading to his writing the books Suicide Clusters (Boston: Faber & Faber, 1987) and The Copycat Effect (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004).[13] He has been called on for statements in the aftermath of school shootings and how best to respond to the problem, mostly by the Canadian media.[14][15][16]

Bibliography
  • The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006, ISBN 1-933665-12-2)
  • The Unidentified & Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006, ISBN 1-933665-11-4)
  • Weird Ohio with James Willis and Andrew Henderson (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2005, ISBN 1-4027-3382-8)
  • The Copycat Effect (New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon & Schuster, 2004, ISBN 0-7434-8223-9)
  • The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep with Patrick Huyghe (NY: Tarcher-Penguin, 2003, ISBN 1-58542-252-5)
  • BIGFOOT!: The True Story of Apes in America (NY: Paraview Pocket-Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-6975-5)
  • Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology (Fresno: Craven Street/Linden Press, 2002, ISBN 0-941936-74-0)
  • Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (NY: Paraview, 2002, ISBN 1-931044-34-1)
  • Mysterious America: The Revised Edition (NY: Paraview, 2001, ISBN 1-931044-05-8)HB 2004 (ISBN 1-931044-84-8).
  • Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature with Jerome Clark (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0-684-85602-6)
  • The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide with Patrick Huyghe (NY: HarperCollins, 1999, ISBN 0-380-80263-5)
gollark: *covid-19 death rate vibes*
gollark: "The chance less than 50%? Guess that means it can never happen!"
gollark: It's a joke.
gollark: Oh, yes, people are TERRIBLE at uncertainty.
gollark: In true anarchocapitalism, children would be auctioned to the highest bidder at birth, who obviously is the most suitable person to raise them.

References
  1. Brenner, Laurie. (2018). "Cryptozoology: The Pseudo-Science of Mythical Creatures". Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  2. "Tracking what's hidden". Decatur Herald & Review. January 31, 1999.
  3. "Renowned cryptozoologist got his start at SIUC". The Southern. 26 October 2005.
  4. "On Bigfoot's Trail". The Boston Globe. 26 February 2006.
  5. "Bigfoot Researcher Obit". npr.org. NPR. 18 February 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  6. Darryl Caterine; John W. Morehead (18 February 2019). The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape. Taylor & Francis. pp. 383–. ISBN 978-1-351-73181-2.
  7. Hill, Sharon A. (23 May 2012). "Cryptozoology and Pseudoscience". Skeptical Inquirer. 21.3. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. Boston, Robert (Fall 1994). "Is Bigfoot an Endangered Species?" (PDF). Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 18 (No. 5): Page 531. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  9. "Hideous Objects Become Museum Art". ABC News. 9 September 2003.
  10. "The Green Hand reaches toward mystery". Portland Daily Sun. 22 September 2009. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013.
  11. "Crypto museum opens in new location". WLBZ. 30 October 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015.
  12. "Expert predicted 'cluster' of school shootings". CTV.
  13. "Cycles of news and violence", The Boston Globe, 14 November 2004
  14. "Empty threats and real killings tend to follow U.S. shooting sprees, experts". International Herald Tribune. 20 April 2007.
  15. "Need-to-know vs. sensationalism". Toronto Star. 20 April 2007.
  16. "Colleges confront shootings with survival training". The Guardian. 26 August 2008.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.