Calef, Robert

Calef, Robert (kā'luf) [key], 1648–1719, known primarily as author of More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700). A Boston cloth merchant, probably born in England, he bitterly attacked Cotton Mather for his part in the Salem, Mass., witchcraft trials. The book, published in London because Boston printers would not accept it, generally condemned the view of witchcraft then prevailing and had a salutary effect throughout New England. It is reprinted in S. G. Drake, comp., The Witchcraft Delusion in New England (3 vol., 1866, repr. 1970).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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