Thus begins Elliott O'Donnells' novel, The Sorcery Club and thus begins the story of Leon Hamar who is forced to take refuge in a second-hand bookstore to avoid the rain and there ends up acquiring a curious book on the black arts in Atlantis. Hamar and his two friends study the book and the information contained therein with surprising and frightening results. Although The Sorcery Club is fiction, Elliott O'Donnell was an interested observer of psychic and supernatural phenomenon and wrote many factual books as well.

Author Biography

Elliott O'Donnell (1872 - 1965) was an author known primarily for his books about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost, described as an elemental figure covered with spots, when he was five years old. He also claimed to have been strangled by a mysterious phantom in Dublin (however, no permanent effect would seem to have been suffered). His first book, written in his spare time, was a psychic thriller titled For Satan's Sake (1904). From this point onward, he became a writer. He wrote several popular novels, including an occult fantasy, The Sorcery Club (1912) but specialized in what were claimed as true stories of ghosts and hauntings. These were immensely popular, but his flamboyant style and amazing stories suggest that he embroidered fact with a romantic flair for fiction. O'Donnell wrote material for numerous magazines, including Hutchinson Story Magazine, The Novel Magazine, The Idler, Weekly Tale-Teller, Hutchinson's Mystery-Story Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, Lilliput and Weird Tales.