San Antonio College Library

Arranged by geographical regions, an anthology of American folktales offers legends, myths, folktalkes, jokes, and personal experiences. "Paul Bunyan, Br'er Rabbit, Bluebeard, and Billy the Kid. These are just some of the many character alive today through folktales. A goldmine for students, storytellers, and general readers, this massive work gives easy access to the stories and legends that have captivated us for generations and continue to influence...

America's premiere 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 Baby Train offers a revealing peek behind...

A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? A tragic misunderstanding of the function of cruise control? No, it didn't really happen to your friend's sister's neighbor: it's an urban legend. And no matter how savvy you think you are, you are sure to find in this collection of over 200 tales at least one story...

Great American Folklore gathers together nearly three hundred of the most entertaining legends, tall tales, and ballads from America's distinctive oral heritage.

The twilight of the longhorn has fallen. The noble breed is nearer extinction than the buffalo ever was. Yet in this rousing chronicle the great days of the longhorn live again, a brave and surging part of our national heritage. James Frank Dobie (September 26, 1888 - September 18, 1964) was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days...

"Here he [the author] looks in detail at a dozen rampant and long-lived examples of this vigorous category of contemporary folklore, tracing their historyies, variations, sources, and meanings."--Jacket.

"In late May, a Pennsylvania high school hums with the rumor that a Satanic cult plans on killing the first four couples through the door on prom night." "A horror writer in the Catskills is overcome with grief, alienated from his wife, unable to write, and suffering from recurring thoughts of physical and sexual indignities he has no words to describe. He concludes he has been abducted by aliens." "In a Pizza Hut in Ohio, employees refuse to close...

A celebration of African American life and culture brings together four hundred years of folklore, traditional tales, recipes, proverbs, legends, folk songs, and folk art.

The stories of American tall tale heroes--Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and others.

"Why did Elizabethan adventurers believe that the interior of America hid vast caches of gold? Who started the rumor that British officers purchased revolutionary white women's scalps, packed them by the bale, and shipped them to their superiors? And why are people today still convinced that white settlers--hardly immune as a group to the disease--routinely distributed smallpox-tainted blankets to the natives? Rumor--spread by colonists and Native...