Chances are, you’ve never even heard of him, yet without him…we wouldn’t have shows and movies like The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, Night of the Living Dead or Shaun of the Dead. That’s because travel writer, William Seabrook was the first to introduce the idea of 'zombies' to popular culture. This was back in 1929, with his smash hit account of travels in Haiti, called 'The Magic Island'.

And if you google his name, that’s often how he’ll be described, as simply the man who brought zombies to America…but, as always the case. We are always more than just one fact…and William Seabrook…was way more…

From hexing Hitler to stealing camels, to eating human flesh, hanging out with Aleister Crowley and paying for women to act like dogs, his life is a breathless series of adventures and experimentation that would see him travelling to the deepest parts of the earth, but also the deepest parts of his own sexual desires.

He was a man searching for something…peace, truth. After you hear his astonishing story, you can decide for yourself if you think he found it…

But for now…you better brace yourself, because his search for meaning, might just make your head spin.

I’m Peter Laws, and today on Our Curious Past, we explore the The Truly Wild Life of William Seabrook.

Special thanks to Nathan Rouse (actor and co-host of the Fear of God podcast), for voicing William Seabrook in these episodes.

For more on Seabrook, check out the fabulous graphic novel 'The Abominable Mr Seabrook' by Joe Ollmann.

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