Bound in Human Skin

Blog 1 Minute

william_burkes_death_mask_and_pocket_book_surgeons_hall_museum_edinburgh

Throughout history, there have been many instances of books bound in human skin. Many of them were created by doctors using the skin of people they dissected to bind either their own work or some other work of anatomy. Even today there are instances of libraries (such as the Harvard Library) discovering that the cover of a volume they own actually came from a person. What would you do if you found one of those books? Should such books be destroyed out of respect for the dead?

Published by eileenmaksym

Eileen Maksym studied philosophy at Yale and theology at Boston College, and now uses both to write science fiction. Currently she is an academic nomad, following her astrophysicist husband around the world, two kids in tow. When not writing or kid wrangling, Eileen is a hopeless fangirl. She can be found on Twitter (@eileenmaksym) squeeing over her favorite shows, most of which involve famous detectives, dashing time travelers, and creatures that are never, ever referred to as zombies.

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