William Seabrook | |
---|---|
Born | William Buehler Seabrook 22 February 1884 Westminster, Maryland |
Died | 20 September 1945 Rhinebeck, New York |
(aged 61)
Occupation | Writer, Reporter |
Nationality | American |
Period | 20th century |
Genre | Occult, Travel |
Literary movement | Lost Generation |
William Buehler Seabrook (February 22, 1884 – September 20, 1945) was an American Lost Generation occultist, explorer, traveler, cannibal, and journalist, born in Westminster, Maryland. He began his career as a reporter and City Editor of the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia and later became a partner in an advertising agency in Atlanta.
Seabrook graduated from Mercersburg Academy. He then attended Roanoke College, received a masters from Newberry College, and studied philosophy at the University of Geneva, located in Switzerland.
In 1915, he joined the American Field Service of the French Army and served in World War I. He was gassed at Verdun in 1916 and was later awarded the Croix de Guerre. The following year, he became a reporter for The New York Times and soon became an itinerant.
Besides his books, Seabrook published articles in popular magazines including Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, and Vanity Fair.
In 1912, Seabrook married his first of three wives, Katherine Pauline Edmondson. They divorced in 1934 and soon after he married Marjorie Worthington in 1935. The marriage ended in 1939 and was followed up by his marriage to Constance Kuhr, which began and ended in 1942.
In the 1920s, Seabrook traveled to West Africa and came across a tribe who partook in the eating of human meat. Seabrook writes about his experience of cannibalism in his novel, Jungle Ways; however, later on Seabrook admits the tribe did not allow him to join in on the ritualistic cannibalism. Instead, he obtained samples of human flesh from a hospital and cooked it himself.