Ghost Stories from the American South

by McNeil, W. K.; McNeil, W. K.

• ISBN13: 9780935304848
• ISBN10: 0935304843
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-19
• Publisher: August House

Summary

More than 100 tales of the supernatural, drawn from Tidewater Virginia to the Lone Star State, are included in this collection. McNeil's introduction traces themes peculiar to the South, such as the screaming bridge and the levitating railroad light. Line drawings contribute to the mood of the stories

Author Biography

W.K. McNeil Bio:

W.K. McNeil was born William Kinneth McNeil in Haywood County, North Carolina, in the Appalachian Mountain region. He received his B.A. in history at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, his M.A. in history from Oklahoma State University, an M.A. in American folk culture from the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, and his Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. His dissertation was written about the history of American folklore studies and he has also published many biographical articles based on this work.


W. K. was a founding member of the History and Folklore section of the American Folklore Society and advisory editor to its journal The Folklore Historian. He became well known as a leading expert in writing histories of folklore as a professional discipline. He later became administrator for the Regional America Program of the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife, and worked as a folklorist for the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	8	(1)
Introduction	9	(18)
Haunted Houses	27	(22)
Other Haunted Places	49	(20)
Headless and Screaming Ghosts and Revenants	69	(10)
Ghosts and Hidden Treasure	79	(10)
Traveling Ghosts	89	(10)
Malevolent Ghosts	99	(8)
Witches, Banshees, Bloodstoppers, Ghostly Lights and Supernatural Creatures	107	(20)
Grave Humor	127	(8)
Notes	135	(30)
Appendix 1. Southern Folklore Archives	165	(3)
Appendix 2. Directories	168	(1)
Index of Southern Localities	169