truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (ws: hamlet)
Sarah/Katherine ([personal profile] truepenny) wrote2011-04-21 05:03 pm

Jack the Ripper reading list question

If a person has read Donald Rumbelow's book on Jack the Ripper (variously published as The Complete Jack the Ripper and Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook), are there any other nonfiction Jack the Ripper books that one ought to read? I.e., has anything substantially new been said since Rumbelow? (And should I bother with anything pre-Rumbelow?)

Please note, I'm not asking what books about Jack the Ripper have been published since 1975; I can find that out for myself. I'm asking for recommendations about which, if any of them, to read.

[identity profile] swan-tower.livejournal.com 2011-04-22 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
I think I've mentioned this before, but "The Dance of the Gull-Catchers" is printed at the back of my copy of From Hell, and it's Moore writing a comic about the history of Ripperology and his own process of research. Not helpful re: this specific question, probably, but well worth reading in its own right, if you haven't already. ("You" being both [livejournal.com profile] michaeldthomas, who probably has, and [livejournal.com profile] truepenny, who may or may not have.)

[identity profile] michaeldthomas.livejournal.com 2011-04-22 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, I have. :-)

[identity profile] truepenny.livejournal.com 2011-04-22 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. I need to bite the bullet and buy From Hell.

[identity profile] swan-tower.livejournal.com 2011-04-22 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I wasn't all that fond of the actual comic, but much of that was for personal-mileage reasons. Certainly Moore did his research. (It's worth getting the version that has his annotations at the back, if your interest is at all scholarly; he extensively footnotes where he got all of his details from.)