I have no problem gazing at bones and sarcophagi at art and history museums, but there's something about books bound from human skin that makes my, well, skin crawl. But such skin-covered rarities do exist, often in the collections of such prestigious universities as Harvard and Brown.

While the idea of making leather from human skin seems bizarre and cruel today, it was not uncommon in centuries past, said Laura Hartman, a rare book cataloger at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland and author of a paper on the subject.

An article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from the late 1800s "suggests that it was common, but it also indicates it wasn't talked about in polite society," Hartman said.

The best libraries then belonged to private collectors. Some were doctors who had access to skin from amputated parts and patients whose bodies were not claimed. They found human leather to be relatively cheap, durable and waterproof, Hartman said.

In other cases, wealthy bibliophiles may have acquired the skin from criminals who were executed, cadavers used in medical schools and people who died in the poor house, said Sam Streit, director of Brown's John Hay Library.

Many of the books bound in human skin are anatomy texts, but some are also "morality" tales, and one is a Quran.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia has four bound by Dr. John Stockton Hough, known for diagnosing the city's first case of trichinosis. He used that patient's skin to bind three of the volumes.

"The hypothesis that I was suggesting is that these physicians did this to honor the people who furthered medical research," Hartman said.

It's not clear whether the patients knew what would happen to their bodies. In most cases, the skin appears to have come from poor people who had no one to claim their remains. Hough's patient was a 28-year-old Irish widow.

"Chances are she was very poor," Hartman said. "I don't know the family situation, but maybe no one came to claim the body?"

One expert on bioethics noted that libraries should use the books in actual academic research and refrain from displaying them as "objects of curiosity."

SnakePlissken

Corvallis, OR

December 2002

JAN 08, 2006 05:09 PM

Just be careful which portions you read out loud.

GypsyPhoenix

Tucson, AZ

April 2004

JAN 08, 2006 05:22 PM

is it bad that i want one?

more importantly, is it weird that i think this may be my next best option, after cremation or donation, as far as what to do with my body when i go?

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK

August 2002

JAN 08, 2006 05:26 PM

Then there is, of course, the Necronomicon, written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, and in which is written:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2006 by Keith]

Wallace

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

JAN 08, 2006 05:28 PM

i don't understand the problem. i mean, they were dead already, right? and no one else claimed their bodies, right? and the skin was just being used to bind books, good & seemingly important books like the quran & stuff about medicine & science. that doesn't seem so bad to me.

i'm one of those people who will probably put it in my will to have my ashes turned into diamonds when i die, and i have considered having my cat skinned when he passes & having his pelt made into a stole or something. does that make me a bad person? i dunno..

at least it's not like what that one SS captain's wife did during the holocaust, which was go "shopping" for prisoners with interesting tattoos, have them killed & skinned and then use their skin to make lampshades & gloves & stuff, and shrink their heads & put them up on her mantlepiece. now that is fucking sick & wrong.

gravedisorder

United Kingdom

August 2005

JAN 08, 2006 05:40 PM

I almost bought a human skin bound book at an antiques auction.

I got outbid

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK

August 2002

JAN 08, 2006 05:44 PM

I think it would rock if it were completely different from how we imagine it. We imagine human-skin bound books as tatterred and fragile, patchwork and tearing apart. Would be interesting to see one that was like lush, luxurious, fine leather. And then hand it to someone and say, "Oh by the way, that's human leather on that."

FrankMask

Saint Paul, MN

June 2003

JAN 08, 2006 05:51 PM

It's just leather. What's the fuss about?

skeptik

New Orleans, LA

February 2004

JAN 08, 2006 05:57 PM

The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of George Walton's memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman -- a robber who specialized in ambushing travelers -- and he left the volume to one of his victims, John Fenno. Fenno's daughter gave it to the library.

Looks like reasonably fine leather to me.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2006 by skeptik]

Spaceboy

Dallas, TX

October 2004

JAN 08, 2006 06:16 PM

Keith said:
Then there is, of course, the Necronomicon, written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, and in which is written:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2006 by Keith]

He totally stole that from Metallica, man.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2006 by Spaceboy]

silicon

Wallington, NJ

December 2003

JAN 08, 2006 06:32 PM

Metallica sold out, Abdul bought it.

beaky

Miami, FL

April 2003

JAN 08, 2006 06:43 PM

Hey I was totally mislead, I thought this was about Evil Dead

Gwendolyn

SUICIDEGIRL

Indiana, USA

JAN 08, 2006 06:45 PM

I'm picturing people sitting at their computers while wearing shoes and a belt made out of leather saying, 'ew! human skin? that's digusting!'

Cassiel

Aurora, CO

September 2004

JAN 08, 2006 06:52 PM

Keith said:
Then there is, of course, the Necronomicon, written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, and in which is written:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2006 by Keith]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Volkov

Austin, TX

OLD SKOOL

JAN 08, 2006 06:53 PM

psychoholicagogo said:
Just be careful which portions you read out loud.

Claaaaaaata Ferratooooo N.....uh...*cough*NICKLE!

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH

April 2004

JAN 08, 2006 07:04 PM

I keep calling the Miskatonic University to borrow one of their flesh-bound volumes, but they are always really cryptic about everything.