10 Chilling Books Bound in Actual Human Skin

Imagine browsing a library, your fingers tracing the spines of aged, leather-bound books. It’s a comforting image for many book lovers. But what if that leather wasn’t from an animal? While uncommon, the practice of binding books in human skin, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, has a chilling history. Some of these unique and unsettling artifacts still exist today.

Prepare yourself as we delve into the stories behind ten such books. These are not tales for the faint of heart, but they offer a fascinating glimpse into a macabre corner of history.

10. The Highwayman’s Final Confession

Hidden within the Boston Athenaeum, a private library established in 1807, is a peculiar volume. Its full title is quite a mouthful: Narrative of the Life of James Allen, alias George Walton, alias Jonas Pierce, alias James H. York, alias Burley Grove, The Highwayman. Being His Death-bed Confession, to the Warden of the Massachusetts State Prison. At first glance, it appears to be a typical 19th-century book with a fine white leather cover. However, an inscription in Latin on its front cover chillingly declares, “This book is bound in the skin of Walton.”

The “Walton” mentioned is indeed the author, George Walton. He made his living through burglary and robbing travelers. Walton, however, claimed a strange sort of code; he disliked taking lives if he could avoid it. One man he attempted to rob, John Fenno, bravely fought back. This resistance left such an impression on Walton that as he lay dying from lung disease in prison, he requested that a copy of his confession be bound in his own skin and given to Fenno as a mark of respect.

9. Holbein’s The Dance of Death

It’s perhaps no surprise that many books bound in human skin explore themes of death and mortality. Humanity has always been fascinated by the macabre, leading to numerous texts that might be considered fitting for such a unique binding.

Hans Holbein, the renowned artist of King Henry VIII’s court, was celebrated for his portraits but was also a talented illustrator. In the 1520s, he created a series of images about death, which were later published in a work called The Dance of Death. Many of these woodcuts carried satirical messages, like depicting a king dining with skeletons to show that even royalty cannot escape death.

A copy of this book, bound in what is described as “white human skin,” is now housed in the archives of Brown University’s library, though it’s not available for public viewing. The library’s records note that the cover is decorated with arrows, knuckle bones, and death’s heads. Protein analysis confirmed the leather is human, but the identity of the person whose skin was used remains a mystery.

8. Flammarion’s The Land of the Sky

Camille Flammarion was a prominent French astronomer in the early 20th century. His interests, however, extended beyond the stars to include the supernatural. Flammarion was known for making rather bold claims, such as Martians attempting to contact Earth and the idea that gas from Halley’s Comet could wipe out all life on our planet. Despite these eccentricities, he had devoted admirers.

One such admirer was a young French countess, reportedly so enamored with Flammarion that she had his portrait tattooed on her skin. As she succumbed to tuberculosis, she made a dying wish to her doctor. She asked him to take a piece of skin from her back, have it turned into leather, and give it to Flammarion to bind one of his books. Her wish was carried out, and Flammarion chose his work The Land of the Sky (Terres du Ciel) as the final resting place for the countess’s skin.

Flammarion had a message inscribed on the book’s cover: “Pious fulfillment of an anonymous wish. Binding in human skin (woman) 1882.”

7. Houssaye’s The Destinies of the Soul

What could be more fitting for a book about the human soul than a binding made from a human body? Des destinées de l’ame (The Destinies of the Soul) was penned by French author Arsène Houssaye. It was one of his medical friends, Dr. Ludovic Bouland, who decided the book needed a human skin cover.

Dr. Bouland used a copy gifted to him by Houssaye for this unique binding. A letter from Bouland, found inside the book, explains his reasoning: “This book is bound in human skin parchment on which no ornament has been stamped to preserve its elegance. By looking carefully, you easily distinguish the pores of the skin. A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering: I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman.” He also noted how this particular human leather differed from another example he owned.

Today, this book is part of Harvard University’s collection. Another book at Harvard once thought to be bound in human skin, bearing an inscription about a friend named Jonas Wright flayed alive, was later found to be sheepskin. This makes The Destinies of the Soul the only confirmed anthropodermic binding at Harvard.

6. Medical Texts from Mary Lynch’s Skin

The College of Physicians in Philadelphia holds three medical books that were rebound in the 19th century by Dr. John Stockton Hough. In 1869, the young Dr. Hough, then just 23, made a significant discovery. He found that a woman named Mary Lynch had died not from tuberculosis, as initially suspected, but from Trichinosis – her flesh was infested with parasitic worms. To commemorate his autopsy success, he took a piece of skin from her thigh and processed it into leather. It’s highly doubtful Mary Lynch ever consented to this.

The skin Hough acquired was reportedly left in a chamber pot for several months to cure into leather. He then waited two decades before using it. The three texts he chose for this binding all dealt with female anatomy, pregnancy, and childbirth. Mary Lynch’s skin was used to cover the spines of these books, and Dr. Hough carefully noted in each volume that they were bound in human skin, ensuring future readers would know.

Dr. Hough’s interest wasn’t limited to skin he collected himself. He also owned another book bound in human skin, noting it was made from “skin from around the wrist of a man who died in the [Philadelphia] Hospital 1869—Tanned by J.S.H. 1869. This bit of leather never boiled or curried.”

5. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug”

Edgar Allan Poe was a master of eerie and strange tales in the 19th century. If auction records are to be believed, one of his works was fittingly, or perhaps disturbingly, covered in human skin.

“The Gold Bug” is a short story about a man bitten by a golden beetle, leading to a hunt for hidden pirate treasure. The story involves the discovery of human skeletons, which makes the alleged human skin binding particularly apt. A copy of this book, put up for sale, included several inscriptions about its binding. One read, “Dear John – What a tribute to the morbid death-loving Poe to find the ‘Gold Bug’ in human skin.” The leather was decorated with a sickle, a shovel, and the gold bug itself descending into a skull.

This unsettling edition of Poe’s tale reportedly sold for $1,020.

4. The Horwood Book: Skin of a Convicted Murderer

John Horwood was only 18 when he was executed in a Bristol prison in 1821. He was convicted of murdering a woman he was obsessed with. After Eliza Balsum rejected him, Horwood threatened her life. When he saw her in the street, he threw a stone that struck her below the eye, leading to her death from the injury.

During this period, the bodies of convicted criminals were often used for medical dissection. Dissection was seen as an additional punishment. Horwood’s body was dissected by Dr. Richard Smith, who had also treated Eliza’s wounds. Dr. Smith compiled notes on the case and bound them in a book covered with Horwood’s own skin. The front of the book is stamped in gold letters: “Cutis Vera Johannis Horwood” – meaning “the actual skin of John Horwood.”

Based on these case notes, some now believe Horwood may have been wrongly convicted of murder. However, this historical re-evaluation came too late to save his skin from becoming a book cover.

3. The Garnet Book: Relic of the Gunpowder Plot?

The Gunpowder Plot is one of Britain’s most infamous assassination attempts. A group of Catholics conspired to blow up Parliament during the king’s speech, aiming to eliminate much of the ruling class. They were discovered, and many conspirators faced gruesome deaths. Father Henry Garnet, a Jesuit priest, was not a plotter but knew of the conspiracy through confessions. Due to the seal of confession, he did not reveal their plans. For this, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered.

In 2007, a book about Garnet’s crime, written in 1606, appeared at auction. Titled A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and His Confederates, it was claimed to be bound not only in the priest’s skin but also to bear an image of his face on the cover.

Whether the binding was actually Garnet’s skin could not be definitively confirmed. The book sold for £5,400.

2. The Red Barn Murder Souvenir

When William Corder shot his lover Maria Marten in 1827, the case caused a public sensation and a craze for details. Marten had previously had a child with Corder’s older brother, but she and William planned to elope after having a child of their own. Corder persuaded Marten to meet him at a nearby red barn, supposedly to hide until they could run away. She was never seen alive again.

Marten’s stepmother experienced vivid dreams of Maria in the red barn. She convinced her husband to dig there, and Maria’s body was discovered. Corder was found, arrested, and tried for her murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, followed by the dissection of his body.

Death masks of Corder were made, but so too were his scalp and enough of his skin to bind a book detailing the case. This grisly artifact can still be viewed in a local museum. His skeleton was reassembled and was displayed by the Royal College of Physicians until 2004 when it was finally cremated.

1. William Burke’s Skin Pocket Book

As we’ve seen, the 19th century had a high demand for cadavers for medical dissection. Most bodies came from executed criminals, but supply often fell short of demand. This shortage gave rise to the “Resurrection Men.” These individuals supplied medical schools with corpses by exhuming the recently deceased. Some, however, took a more direct and sinister approach: they turned to murder to procure bodies.

William Burke and William Hare committed around 16 murders to supply cadavers to the Edinburgh University medical school. Hare testified against Burke and was granted freedom. Burke was sentenced to death. The judge added a chilling directive: “Your body should be publicly dissected and anatomized. And I trust, that if it is ever customary to preserve skeletons, yours will be preserved, in order that posterity may keep in remembrance your atrocious crimes.”

Burke’s body was indeed dissected. His skin was removed and turned into leather. From this leather, a small notebook was bound, featuring fine gilded tooling and the words “Burke’s Skin Pocket Book” on the front. It even included a pencil inside for taking notes, a truly macabre memento.

These ten books offer a chilling reminder of a time when the lines between scientific inquiry, punishment, and morbid curiosity were disturbingly blurred. While anthropodermic bibliopegy is now a relic of the past, these artifacts continue to fascinate and horrify in equal measure, prompting us to reflect on the strange ways human remains have been treated and memorialized throughout history.