The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: New Approaches to Fairies, Fakes and Folklore

The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: New Approaches to Fairies, Fakes, and Folklore offers a groundbreaking series of studies of one of the 20th century’s most bizarre episodes—the taking of five photographs of fairies at Cottingley Brook in West Yorkshire. With a blend of cultural, historical, and supernatural elements, scholars from six nations, examine, over fifteen essays, the impact of the photographs. Key topics include the influence of theosophy, clairvoyance, and media on fairylore and folklore. Contributors explore the social and technological landscapes of the time, providing fresh perspectives on the enduring fascination with the Cottingley fairies and examine how two young girls could captivate the world with a simple hoax. This collection will be welcome reading for scholars, enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the intersection of myth and media in modern culture and of course by anyone intrigued by fairies.Inspiring the Cottingley Fairies – John ClarkElsie, Frances, and the Beck: The Artist, the Mystic and the Cottingley Fairies – Simon YoungSeeing the Unseeable: The Role of Clairvoyance in the Cottingley Story – Neil RushtonThoroughly Modern Fairies: Cottingley and the Fashionable World of the 1910s – Chris WoodyardOut-Sherlocking Sherlock: Who Really Took the Cottingley Fairy Photographs? – Fiona MaherSeen but not Heard: Cottingley and the Folklorists’ Deafening Silence – Francesca BihetEdward Gardner’s Theosophical Storyworld – Kaori InumaThe Victorians, Theosophists, and the Cottingley Fairies: Reshaping Modern Fairy Belief – Morgan DaimlerThe Cottingley Case in Modern Esoteric Fairy Literature – Ethan Doyle WhiteFairies in an Age of Technology: Cottingley, Cameras, and Print Media Marguerite JohnsonTrick Photographs: The Pleasure of Being Deceived – Shiho HamanoFairy Fraud: The Socio-Cultural Impact of the Cottingley Fairy Photographs – Meri DicksonThe Endless Summer: Fairies as a Metaphor for Childhood – Joshua CutchinJoe’s Visit: Memories of Joe Cooper – Dan GreenCottingley Beck: Farewell to the Fairies? – Kate Ray Read more