Jan L. Perkowski, originally from Austin, Texas, is Professor of Slavic Languages and literatures at the University of Virginia. He has a PhD from Harvard University. He attracted attention when he published research into alleged vampire folklore in the 1970s that was easily sensationalized in the press and has a vogue among vampire fans.

Perkowski was employed by the National Museum of Man in Canada in 1968 - 69 to conduct research for the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies in the area of Wilno, Ontario, to study Kaszubian Polish folklore and traditions. His 1972 report, "Vampires, Dwarves, And Witches Among The Ontario Kashubs" inspired sensational articles in Psychology Today, The Canadian Magazine, and The National Enquirer which got it denounced on the floor of the Canadian House of Commons.

In 1989 he published The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism which contains original vampire accounts translated into English from over twenty languages, many for the first time, including a vampire trial in Dubrovnik in 1737.

Publications

1969 

A Kashubian idiolect in the United States.

1972 

Vampires, dwarves and witches among the Ontario Kashubs. Ottowa, Ontario, Canada : 1972.

1976 

Vampires of the Slavs. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA : Slavica, 1976. ISBN 0893570265

1978 

Gusle and ganga among the Hercegovinians of Toronto. Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA : University Microfilms International, 1978. ISBN 0835703215

1982 

The Romanian folkloric vampire. East Europe Quarterly, September 1982. Reprinted in The Vampire: A casebook, Alan Dundes, ed. (University of Wisconsin Press, 1998) ISBN 0299159248

1989 

The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism. Columbus, Ohio, USA : Slavica, 1989. ISBN 0893572004 [1]

2000 

Linguistic History Engraved in Gold and Silver: Legends on the Coins of St. Vladimir.

External links

• Perkowski's website
• The Vampire in Ontario - Wilno's Vampiric Legends