Harvard removes human skin binding from a book in its library

In a note inside the volume, its original owner said "a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering."

Remember the human skin-bound spellbook from "Hocus Pocus?" Turns out it wasn't such a far-fetched movie prop after all.

Until this week, a real 19th-century book bound in human skin lived at Harvard University, and though it wasn't a spellbook, its story carries a similar air of darkness.

The copy of Arsène Houssaye's book "Des Destinées de l'âme" first arrived at Harvard in 1934. Described as "a meditation on the soul and life after death" by Harvard Library, the book was initially placed there on deposit by American diplomat John B. Stetson, but his widow ended up donating it to the university's Houghton Library 20 years later, Harvard said.

Harvard Art Museum / Arsène Houssaye

Before that though, Houssaye himself had given the volume to his friend and the copy's original owner, French physician and bibliophile Dr. Ludovic Bouland.