The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings

Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346536
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
The groundbreaking book that launched America's urban legend obsession! Folklore scholar Jan Harold Brunvand assembles the best-known urban legends—including "The Hook," "The Spider in the Hairdo," and "The Baby-Sitter and the Man Upstairs"—and provides an enlightening and entertaining analysis of their variants and evolution. The Vanishing Hitchhiker was Professor Brunvand's first popular book on urban legends, and it remains a classic. The culmination of twenty years of collection and research, this book is a must-have for urban legend lovers.

Curses! Broiled Again!

Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346730
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
From the master folklorist and sly wit, Jan Brunvand, comes a collection of all-new urban legends. Did your cousin's wife's dentist's daughter go to the tanning parlor once too often and had her insides cooked? Has your husband's brother's nephew teacher try to make a dead rabbit look alive? If so, you've heard—or you yourself may have told—two of the seventy-plus legends in this collection. Urban legends are "those bizarre but believable stories about batter-fried rats, spiders in hairdos, Cabbage Patch dolls that get funerals, and the like that pass by word of mouth as being the gospel truth." But of course, though often told as having happened to a FOAF (friend of a friend), they aren't true. Included in this collection are legends about sex, horror, cars, business, and academia. Among them are "The Bible Student's Exam," "The Pregnant Shoplifter," "The Ice Cream Cone Caper," "Don't Mess with Texas," and "Mrs. Fields' Cookie Recipe."

Be Afraid Be Very Afraid

Author: Harold Jan Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393326130
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
A collection of over ninety frightening urban legends, arranged by theme.

Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends

Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393320886
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

Book Description
A collection of oft-repeated urban legends brings together the best of modern myths, from the stoned baby sitter who mistook a baby for a turkey to the fabulously expensive recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults

Author: Bill Ellis
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781617030017
Category : Legends
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Book Description

The Choking Doberman: And Other Urban Legends

Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393303217
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Discusses over forty stories of improbable events told as true and embelished with local details which the author calls urban legends.

The Haunting of Vancouver Island

Author: Shanon Sinn
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
ISBN: 177151244X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Book Description
A compelling investigation into supernatural events and local lore on Vancouver Island. Vancouver Island is known worldwide for its arresting natural beauty, but those who live here know that it is also imbued with a palpable supernatural energy. Researcher Shanon Sinn found his curiosity piqued by stories of mysterious sightings on the island—ghosts, sasquatches, sea serpents—but he was disappointed in the sensational and sometimes disrespectful way they were being retold or revised. Acting on his desire to transform these stories from unsubstantiated gossip to thoroughly researched accounts, Sinn uncovered fascinating details, identified historical inconsistencies, and now retells these encounters as accurately as possible. Investigating 25 spellbinding tales that wind their way from the south end of the island to the north, Sinn explored hauntings in cities, in the forest, and on isolated logging roads. In addition to visiting castles, inns, and cemeteries, he followed the trail of spirits glimpsed on mountaintops, beaches, and water, and visited Heriot Bay Inn on Quadra Island and the Schooner Restaurant in Tofino to personally scrutinize reports of hauntings. Featuring First Nations stories from each of the three Indigenous groups who call Vancouver Island home—the Coast Salish, the Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Kwakwaka’wakw—the book includes an interview with Hereditary Chief James Swan of Ahousaht.

New England Ghost Files

Author: Charles T. Robinson
Publisher: Covered Bridge Press
ISBN: 9781580660303
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description

The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends

Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346722
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
America's premier folk detective is back on the case, sniffing out those zany but dubious stories that "really happened" to a friend of your sister's boyfriend's accountant's mechanic. Jan Harold Brunvand—''Mr. Urban Legend" [Smithsonian]—tracks the most fabulous tales making today's cocktail-party circuit and shows why those stories that sound too good to be true probably are too good to be true. The eponymous episode—"The Baby Train"—sheds light on certain predawn activities that have linked unusually high birth rates to the whim of train schedule makers. Other stories offer a revealing peek behind the story of "The Exploding Bra," expose the embarrassing source of "The Hairdresser's Error," resurrect a "Failed Suicide" Buster Keaton would have died for, and show why adults are better off not bringing their comic book fantasies out of the closet. From "Superhero Hijinx" to "The Shocking Videotape" to "The Accidental Cannibal," The Baby Train uncovers the mysteries behind some of the bawdiest, goriest, funniest, most pyrotechnic urban legends yet.

Creepy Urban Legends

Author: Tim O'Shei
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1429645725
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 18

Book Description
"Describes scary urban legends, including The Vanishing Hitchhiker and The Babysitter on the Phone"--Provided by publisher.