About Us

Welcome!

Golden Bough Books was founded by a humanities PhD who wanted to put a little more magic into the world. Our books deal with the strange, spiritual, and supernatural, across both fiction and nonfiction categories. We hand-select high quality publications spanning a broad range of topics and genres, as long as they're magical, mystical, or just plain weird.

Our curated collections feature books that share common themes, voices, and vibes, and we add new collections regularly based on the season.

From histories of magic to magical fiction, you'll find some of the best titles on our virtual shelves. Come in, explore, and bring a little magic into your world.

The Golden Bough  

The name of our store comes from Virgil's Aeneid. In the story, Aeneas seeks to enter the underworld and communicate with his dead father. A sybil tells him that he must find an enchanted branch known as the Golden Bough and bring it to Proserpine, queen of the underworld. Only then will she grant him admittance to the other side of the veil.

In 1890, anthropologist John James Frazer mistakenly evoked the Golden Bough in his highly influential book of the same name, even though he was actually discussing an entirely different section of the Aeneid. Oops. Frazer attempted to trace a through-line from magic to religion to science across human history. While an important historic artifact, scholars see the book today as simplistic ethnography, at best, and his theories have been largely discarded. Nevertheless, Frazer's book remains one of the most influential books on magic to ever happen. If you check out our History of Magic section, you'll likely encounter a reference or two.

Golden Bough Books aims to reclaim the mythical branch as a portal to another world. We hope our books will help you find a little respite and enchantment wherever you are in your own magical journey.