Famous Impostors
Famous Impostors is the last of four non-fiction books completed by Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. It features numerous historical impostors and hoaxes.
The first edition was published by the Sturgis & Walton Company of New York in November 1910. The British edition was published by Sidgwick & Jackson of London, also dated 1910, but printed in the United States. Newspaper and magazine coverage implies that it was published in January 1911.
Contents
Dashed annotations are by Wikipedia.- Pretenders
- * Perkin Warbeck
- * The Hidden King — Sebastian of Portugal
- * Stephan Mali — Šćepan Mali
- * The False Dauphins
- * Princess Olive
- Practitioners of Magic
- * Paracelsus
- * Cagliostro
- * Mesmer
- The Wandering Jew
- John Law
- Witchcraft and Clairvoyance
- * Witches
- * Doctor Dee
- * La Voisin
- * Sir Edward Kelley
- * Mother Damnable - a brewer and owner of today's The World's End, Camden. Suspected witch after her death.
- * Matthew Hopkins
- Arthur Orton
- Women as Men
- * The Motive for Disguise
- * Hannah Snell
- * La Maupin
- * Mary East
- Hoaxes, Etc.
- * Two London Hoaxes — includes the Berners Street hoax
- * The Cat Hoax — a scam to buy cats brought to a certain address
- * The Military Review — a false parade announced at 1812
- * The Toll-Gate — a practical joke played by Charles Mayne Young for not paying a toll
- * The Marriage Hoax — a marriage stopped by the false claim that the groom already had a wife and children
- * Buried Treasure — a false treasure unearthed by a victim and a swindler, which gives his share to the victim in exchange for something of value
- * Dean Swift's Hoax — an alleged letter written by a criminal about his accomplices and hideouts
- * Hoaxed Burglars — thieves steal a secure box containing lead
- * Bogus Sausages — sausages are discovered to be skins filled with bread
- * The Moon Hoax
- Chevalier d'Eon — A French diplomat, spy and soldier of ambiguous gender identity. Stoker's inclusion of d'Éon is now regarded as offensive.
- The Bisley Boy — A claim that Queen Elizabeth I of England was secretly a man