Demonology and Devil Lore is a work on demonology which analyzes how different cultures and religions have interpreted demons and devil along history. The author's survey of myths, folktales, superstitions and rituals across cultures is very methodical. Each topic is thoroughly researched and it is explained how a certain theme is viewed in demonic myths throughout the world. The book is a kind of a treatise on the historical development of the idea of Evil.
Moncure Daniel Conway was an American abolitionist minister. At various times Methodist, Unitarian, and a Freethinker, the radical writer descended from patriotic and patrician families of Virginia and Maryland but spent most of the final four decades of his life abroad in England and France, where he wrote biographies of Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine and his own autobiography. He led freethinkers in London's South Place Chapel, now Conway Hall.