"The Diary of a Resurrectionist" by James Blake Bailey offers a gripping glimpse into the life of a resurrectionist during a time when body snatching was a grim necessity for medical advancement. Through the eyes of the author, readers are transported to the early 19th century, where the demand for cadavers for anatomical study led to morally ambiguous practices. Bailey's detailed accounts reveal the challenges and dangers faced by those who engaged in this illicit trade, providing a uniqu...

The “Diary of a Resurrectionist” here reprinted is only of a fragmentary character. It is, however, unique in being an actual record of the doings of one gang of the resurrection-men in London. Many persons have expressed a wish that so interesting a document should be published; permission having been obtained to print the Diary, an endeavour has been made to gratify this wish. To make the reprint more interesting, and to explain some of the allusions in the Diary, an account of the resur...

'Superlative... definitive and genuinely gripping' SUNDAY TIMES'Utterly engrossing' EVENING STANDARD'Compulsively readable... Beautifully written... Definitive' OBSERVERAppointed by Philip Roth and granted complete access and independence, Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and engaging Roth himself in breathtakin...