Case file · Folklore / legend
Seabrook's The Magic Island brings 'zombie' to America
William Seabrook's 1929 travel book The Magic Island described Haitian zombis working in cane fields and introduced the word to a mass English-speaking audience.
1929 CE · 18.54, -72.34 · status: disputed
The account
It inspired the first zombie film, White Zombie (1932). Seabrook said he had seen zombis himself near a plantation at Hasco. The book is the starting point of the Hollywood zombie, which has little to do with Haitian belief.
The sceptical view
Written during the US occupation, it mixes observation with lurid invention and was criticised by Haitian writers.
Connections in the atlas
- Faustin Wirkus, 'white king' of La Gonâve
- The first 'zombi' in print, Guadeloupe
- Zora Neale Hurston photographs a 'zombie'