Famous Impostors

Famous Impostors is the last of four non-fiction books completed by Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula.^[3] It features numerous historical impostors and hoaxes.

Famous Impostors

First British edition (Sidgwick & Jackson, printed in the US)[1]
Author	Bram Stoker
Language	English
Publisher	Sturgis & Walton (US)
Publication date	November 1910[2]
Media type	Print (hardcover)

The first edition was published by the Sturgis & Walton Company of New York in November 1910.^[2] The British edition was published by Sidgwick & Jackson of London, also dated 1910, but printed in the United States.^[1] Newspaper and magazine coverage implies that it was published in January 1911.^[4]

Contents

Dashed (—) annotations are by Wikipedia.

• Pretenders
  • Perkin Warbeck
  • The Hidden King — Sebastian of Portugal
  • Stephan Mali — Šćepan Mali
  • The False Dauphins
  • Princess Olive
• Practitioners of Magic
  • Paracelsus
  • Cagliostro
  • Mesmer
• The Wandering Jew
• John Law
• Witchcraft and Clairvoyance
  • Witches
  • Doctor Dee
  • La Voisin
  • Sir Edward Kelley
  • Mother Damnable - a brewer and owner of today's The World's End, Camden. Suspected witch after her death.
  • Matthew Hopkins
• Arthur Orton (Tichborne claimant)
• Women as Men
  • The Motive for Disguise
  • Hannah Snell
  • La Maupin
  • Mary East
• Hoaxes, Etc.
  • Two London Hoaxes — includes the Berners Street hoax
  • The Cat Hoax — a scam to buy cats brought to a certain address
  • The Military Review — a false parade announced at 1812
  • The Toll-Gate — a practical joke played by Charles Mayne Young for not paying a toll
  • The Marriage Hoax — a marriage stopped by the false claim that the groom already had a wife and children
  • Buried Treasure — a false treasure unearthed by a victim and a swindler, which gives his share to the victim in exchange for something of value
  • Dean Swift's Hoax — an alleged letter written by a criminal about his accomplices and hideouts
  • Hoaxed Burglars — thieves steal a secure box containing lead
  • Bogus Sausages — sausages are discovered to be skins filled with bread
  • The Moon Hoax
• Chevalier d'Eon — A French diplomat, spy and soldier of ambiguous gender identity. Stoker's inclusion of d'Éon would today be offensive.
• The Bisley Boy — A claim that Queen Elizabeth I of England was secretly a man