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NUMISMATIST AND GHOST HUNTER HANS HOLZER DIES Arthur Shippee forwarded the following New York Times obituary for numismatic author (and famed Ghost Hunter) Hans Holzer. Holzer co-authored the 1946 book The Coin Collectors' Almanac with Hans M. F. Schulman. Quick quiz - who can name Holzer's other numismatic works? -Editor  Hans Holzer, whose investigations into the paranormal took him to haunted houses all over the world, most notably the Long Island house that inspired “The Amityville Horror,” died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 89.Mr. Holzer — who wrote more than 140 books on ghosts, the afterlife, witchcraft, extraterrestrial beings and other phenomena associated with the realm he called “the other side” — carried out his most famous investigation with the medium Ethel Johnson-Meyers in 1977. Together they roamed the house in Amityville, in which a young man, Ronald DeFeo Jr., had murdered his parents and four siblings in 1974. The house had become notorious after its next owners claimed to have been tormented by a series of spine-chilling noises and eerie visitations, set forth in the best-selling 1977 book “The Amityville Horror: A True Story,” written by Jay Anson. Hans Holzer was born in Vienna and developed an interest in the supernatural when his uncle Henry told him stories about ghosts and fairies. He studied archaeology, ancient history and numismatics at the University of Vienna but left Austria for New York with his family in 1938, just before the Nazi takeover. He did believe in reincarnation and past lives (he vividly recalled the Battle of Glencoe in 1692 in one of his Scottish lifetimes) and was a Wiccan high priest, as well as a vegan. Mr. Holzer saw life on the other side in sharp detail. As he described it to the Web site ghostvillage.com in 2005, it is strangely like this side, and bureaucratic to boot. The dead who become restless and wish to return to Earth for another go-round must fall in line and register with a clerk. To read the complete article, see: Hans Holzer, Ghost Hunter, Dies at 89 (www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/books/30holzer.html) So, will he get past the clerk and come back to haunt us?  I passed a draft of this article to Hans Schulman's grandson Mark, who didn't know about his grandfather’s association with Holzer. He writes: "This information gave me goose bumps, to say the least."Pictured above is my copy of the Schulman/Holzer book. Mark adds: "I have the 1946 hardback of the book, although the cover is red, not green like your photo." My copy has the name of David J. Sullivan imprinted on the cover, and an inscription from "Hans Xmas 1946". Is the green version a deluxe or presentation copy? Is anyone familiar with the different binding variants of this book? Mark provided the image of his copy shown here. He writes: "It also came with a letter from my Grandfather to the subscriber. It was typed on a typewriter!!!" -Editor Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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