Marion L Starkey

The Devil in Massachusetts Marion L Starkey

2019 Reprint of 1950 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Motivated in part by the question of how the Holocaust could have happened, Starkey delved into the Salem archives to explore the underpinnings of an earlier American tragedy: the Salem Witch Trials. Working from court records, she created a psychological portrait tracing the development of the event from child fantasies to societal hysteria, eventually publishing in 1949 The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller is said to have used this work in his research for The Crucible.