Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman (born in 1947 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American scientist, best known as a leading specialist in cryptozoology, having done fieldwork since 1960. His mentor was the late Ivan T. Sanderson, a friend of the late Bernard Heuvelmans, as well as other founding members of the contemporary cryptozoological and Bigfoot studies fields. His youngest sibling is Jerry D. Coleman, an agrestic writer on the paranormal.
Coleman was educated in anthropology and zoology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and in psychiatric or clinical social work at the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. He did post-masters work in anthropology at Brandeis University and in sociology at the University of New Hampshire, having been admitted to the doctoral programs at each, but deciding, due to family committments, to not finish either program. Coleman taught at New England universities from 1980 to 2004, also having been a senior researcher at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Policy from 1983 to 1996, before retiring from teaching to write, lecture, and consult on his many interests.
Coleman appears frequently on radio talk shows, in television programs, and in documentaries via interviews about Bigfoot, Yeti, Lake monsters, Mothman, Dover Demon, and other cryptids. He has written numerous articles and books on cryptozoology, of which the first was published in 1969. He is one of the world's leading cryptozoologists, some critics and media commentators say "the" leading. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson's Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the late 1960s and 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman also specializes in Fortean phenomena, which includes cryptozoology but also covers other topics. He has many professional interests, as well, including a subspeciality in media analysis. His 2004 book The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (ISBN 0743482239) followed in the wake of his earlier academic publications and book, Suicide Clusters (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1987). His interests extend to parapoliticology.
Coleman, due to his extensive research on Mothman, was asked by Sony/Screen Gems before the release of their 2002 movie The Mothman Prophecies, to assist them with their reality-based publicity. He therefore was involved in press conferences, and over three hundred radio interviews discussing the factual background to the 1966-1967 events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia that informed Mark Pellington's contemporary motion picture. The studio also had Coleman and author John Keel appear in their documentary, Search for the Mothman (2002), directed by David Grabias. In conjunction with the movie and documentary, the studio encouraged Coleman to complete his book on Mothman before the release of their movie, and thus Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (ISBN 1931044341) was published in 2002 by New York's Paraview Press. He continues this work through a study of the so-called "Mothman Curse".
Despite Coleman's Mothman research, his long-term interest is in Yeti and Sasquatch investigations. He has carried out extensive fieldwork throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, regarding sightings, trace evidence, and Native peoples' traditions of Sasquatch/Windigo/Bigfoot. Many of his recent books have dealt with Bigfoot, Yeti, Lake Monsters, and Sea Serpents. His writings are extensive collections of raw data, theories, and his adventures traveling around North America. His investigations, through others' news reports, as well as his own articles and books frequently reflect words and phrases that have passed into routine use in cryptozoology. For example, he coined Dover Demon as well as other cryptids' specific names.
Coleman has written twenty-seven books and more than six hundred articles, has appeared frequently on radio and television programs, and has lectured throughout North America, as well as in London and at Loch Ness. Coleman's former cryptozoology columns, since the 1970s, have been "On the Trail," in the London-based Fortean Times and "Mysterious World" in Fate Magazine, as well as regular contributions to The Anomalist and Fortean Studies. His unique signature column, "The Cryptozoo News," was published in Strange Magazine, Mysteries Magazine, and elsewhere.
Coleman has been both an on- and off-camera consultant to NBC-TV's "Unsolved Mysteries," A & E's "Ancient Mysteries," History Channel's "In Search of History," Discovery Channel's "In the Unknown, " Discovery Science Channel's "Critical Eye," History Channel's "Deep Sea Detectives," Animal Planet's "Animal X," Discovery Kids' "Mystery Hunters," and Animal Planet's "Twisted Tales," and other reality-based programs such as Current Affair and Evening Magazine. In 2000, he served as the Senior Series Consultant to the new "In Search Of..." program which was broadcast on Sci-Fi Network. During 2002, he was featured in the Sony Studios' documentary, "Search for the Mothman," available on the deluxe DVD of the movie The Mothman Prophecies. He served as the Screen Gems' national and international publicity spokesperson for their Richard Gere-Mark Pellington movie.
Coleman is also a biographer, having written on Yeti and Bigfoot expedition sponsor Tom Slick. Loren Coleman's special appreciation of his fellow cryptozoologists and hominologists has made him the source of biographical insights, and his obituaries and living commentaries on the leaders of the field (as noted in Cryptozoology A to Z) have been published and broadcast widely. National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," for example, called on Coleman to speak in tribute of Dr. Grover Krantz who died on Valentine's Day, 2002. Coleman was the first person that reporter Bob Young spoke to about Ray Wallace's death, even before the Wallace family pulled off their now infamous "confession" stories about their father's Bigfoot hoaxes.
Coleman has won awards for this documentary films (he produced 11 while at the University of Southern Maine) and literary work. In 2004, he was honored with being depicted as the comic book character "Coleman Wadsworth" chasing an Abominable Snowman and the title creature in the Swamp Thing comics. He also appeared, fictionalized, in several cryptofiction works, those novels based on cryptozoology.
Paraview Press introduced a new series of books, "Loren Coleman Presents," with Mark A. Hall's book, Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds (ISBN 193104497X) in 2004.
The Bates College Museum of Art exhibition, "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Space Scale," (June 24-October 7, 2006) and during October-December 2006, at the Kansas City Art Institute, was inspired by Coleman's work. He was the keynote speaker at the October 2005 symposium held in conjunction with the pre-planning for the traveling exhibition.
Coleman's popular "CryptoZoo News" now appears as Coleman's weblog at Cryptomundo.com.
In 2003, Loren Coleman established the International Cryptozoology Museum in his hometown of Portland, Maine.
Coleman has been a devoted volunteer in various youth-specific organizations, for example, on adoption reform and suicide prevention. He has been involved deeply, as well, in the youth baseball arena, having been a little league baseball coach, director of his local little league baseball board of directors, president of Portland Babe Ruth Baseball, Inc., and president/director of his sons' baseball teams parents booster organizations at the high school and college level. He has been a member of the Society of American Baseball Research for several decades.
Bibliography
Loren Coleman has written 27 books, including the following recent selections:
- "Weird Virginia" (forthcoming, NY: Barnes and Noble, 2007)
- "The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates" with Patrick Huyghe (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006, ISBN 1933665122)
- "The Unidentified & Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman" (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006, ISBN 1933665114)
- "Weird Ohio" with James Willis and Andy Henderson (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2005, ISBN 1402733828)
- The Copycat Effect (New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster, 2004) [1]
- The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep with Patrick Huyghe (NY: Tarcher-Penguin, 2003, ISBN 1585422525)
- BIGFOOT!: The True Story of Apes in America (NY: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0743469755)
- Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology (Fresno: Craven Street/Linden Press, 2002, ISBN 0941936740)
- Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (NY: Paraview, 2002, ISBN 1931044341)
- Mysterious America: The Revised Edition (NY: Paraview, 2001, ISBN 1931044058). Also in 2004, a hardbound edition of Mysterious America was published (ISBN 1931044848). In late 2006, a new paperbound edition from Simon and Schuster.
- Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature with Jerome Clark (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0684856026)
- The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide with Patrick Huyghe (NY: HarperCollins, 1999, ISBN 0380802635)