Library & Online Resources
Nancy Kilgore is a former pastor and a published fiction writer. She has been also been a pastoral counselor for the last twenty years. In addition to receiving her Master of Divinity from PTS, Kilgore received a Certificate in Creative Writing from Radcliffe College and a Doctor of Ministry in Religion, Culture and Personality from Boston University. She resides in Burlington, Vermont.
Kilgore's most recent book, Bitter Magic, was inspired by the true story of the witchcraft trial of Isobel Gowdie in 1662. From Kirkus Reviews: “...the prose is confident and the setting richly detailed...Kilgore captures the dismal subsistence of the peasants, the pall of religious fervor, the new search for rationality, and the sorry plight of women...A significant, accurate portrayal of a dour 1660s Scotland..."
Learn more about Nancy Kilgore at https://www.nancykilgore.com/
Select Bibliography
These books are not currently in the Barbour Library collection. The links below will take you to either Bookshop.org (which supports local bookstores) or Amazon.com, where you can purchase the book.
Goodare, Julian. Ed. Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland. London: Palgrave McMillan, 2007.
Goodare, Julian. Ed. The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Kilgore, Nancy. Bitter Magic: Inspired by the True Story of a Confessed Witch. Boiling Springs, PA: Milton House Press, 2021.
Kilgore, Nancy. Sea Level. Durham, NC: RCWMS, 2011.
Kilgore, Nancy. Wild Mountain. West Brattleboro, VT: Green Writers Press, 2017.
Levack, Brian. Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics and Religion. Oxfordshire, England: Routledge, 2007.
Normand, Lawrence. Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James' VI's Demonology and the North Berwick Witches. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2000.
Books in Barbour Library
Print books below may be checked out by PTS students, faculty, and staff, as well as local area patrons who have library accounts (requires an annual fee). Ebooks are indicated by asterisks, and are available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff only.
The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland by Call Number: BX4840 .T63 2002ISBN: 9780300092349Publication Date: 2002-07-11
Eradicating the Devil's Minions by Call Number: BX4935.W5 W35 2007ISBN: 9780802091550Publication Date: 2007-07-28
Exorcising Our Demons: Magic, Witchcraft and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe by Call Number: BF1584.E85 Z55 2003ISBN: 9789004125605Publication Date: 2003-02-25
Heresy in Transition by Call Number: BT1319 .H48 2005ISBN: 9780754654285Publication Date: 2005-11-28
The Luminous Vision: six medieval mystics and their teachings by Call Number: BV5082.2 .B36ISBN: 9780041890013Publication Date: 1983-05-01
The period of the witch trials by Call Number: BF1584.E9 A55 2002ISBN: 9780812236170Publication Date: 2003-01-20
Ways of Lying: dissimulation, persecution, and conformity in early modern Europe by Call Number: BR1608.E8 Z34 1990ISBN: 9780674948341Publication Date: 1990-09-25
Witchcraze : a new history of the European witch hunts by Call Number: BF1584.E9 B27 1994ISBN: 9780062500496Publication Date: 1993-12-01A description and gender analysis of the Reformation-era European witch hunt in which 7 million women were persecuted, tortured, and/or executed.
Women Mystics in Medieval Europe by Call Number: BV5077 .E85 F4613ISBN: 9780913729168Publication Date: 1989-07-01
Click on the links below to perform subject searches in the library catalog:
Europe -- Church history -- 17th century.
Mysticism -- Europe -- History.
Persecution -- Europe -- History.
Theology, Doctrinal -- Europe -- History
Witchcraft -- Europe -- History.
Select Bibliography
The articles below without links are not available in the Barbour Library journal collection - please check your local library for interlibrary loan services in order to obtain copies of these.
Davies, Caroline. "Women executed 300 years ago as witches in Scotland set to receive pardons". The Guardian, December 19, 2021.
Eschner, Kat. "England’s Witch Trials Were Lawful." Smithsonian Magazine, August 18, 2017.
Kilgore, Nancy. "Finding the Tracks of a Scottish Witch." Reading the Past, August 10, 2021.
Articles in Barbour Library
Articles that are available online have links, and are only available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff. Articles without links are in the print journal collection.
Goodare, Julian. 2002. “The Framework for Scottish Witch-Hunting in the 1590s.” Scottish Historical Review 81, 2 (212): 240-250.
Goodare, Julian. 2005. “The Scottish Witchcraft Act.” Church History 74 (1): 39–67.
Goodare, Julian. 1998. “Women and the Witch-Hunt in Scotland.” Social History 23 (3): 288-308.
Macdonald, Stuart. 2017. “Counting Witches: Illuminating and Distorting the Shape of Witchcraft Accusations in Scotland.” Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 37 (1): 1–18.
- Bitter Magic! What Witches Have to Tell Us--with Nancy KilgoreA radio interview with Nancy Kilgore about her new book, Bitter Magic.
- The Horrid Sinne of Witchcraft: the Scottish witchhunt in burgh recordsThis online exhibition of the Scottish Archives Network "consists of images of documents which illustrate the part played by Scottish burghs in seventeenth century witch-hunts."
- Nancy Kilgore WebsiteLearn more about Nancy, her books, and her other writings.
- Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, 1563-1736This website of the University of Edinburgh is an electronic resource for the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting in Scotland.