Contains over 500 articles
Ranging over foodways and folksongs, quiltmaking and computer lore, Pecos Bill, Butch Cassidy, and Elvis sightings, more than 500 articles spotlight folk literature, music, and crafts; sports and holidays; tall tales and legendary figures; genres and forms; scholarly approaches and theories; regions and ethnic groups; performers and collectors; writers and scholars; religious beliefs and practices. The alphabetically arranged entries vary from concise definitions to detailed surveys, each accompanied by a brief, up-to-date bibliography.
Special features
*More than 2000 contributors
*Over 500 articles spotlight folk literature, music, crafts, and more
*Alphabetically arranged
*Entries accompanied by up-to-date bibliographies
*Edited by America's best-known folklore authority

William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has succeeded in surviving in contemporary culture, and has even managed to penetrate to the most modern media of mass communications. This book, first published in 1991, examines some of the different literary and oral versions of The Taming of the Shrew. This book is ideal for students of literature, drama, and theatre studies.

The definitive word on the subject from the dean of urban legend studies.

We all know those stories that are too bizarre to be true—roasted babies, vanishing hitchhikers, scuba divers in trees—but have you heard about the ice man or the bullet baby? This comprehensive and compellingly readable reference work will answer all your urban legend questions, offering alphabetical entries on every aspect of the subject, including descriptions of hundreds of individual legends and their variations, legend themes, and scholarly approaches to the genre. Other entries discuss the relationship of urban legends to literature, film, comic books, music, and many other areas of popular culture. A Booklist Editors' Choice 2001 Reference Book. 60 b/w illustrations.

"Unlike most encyclopedias, this one may be read cover to cover."—Choice

"Compiled by the foremost authority on this form of contemporary folklore....Superb."—Library Journal

"A uniquely entertaining book: edifying scholarship, diverting social history."—Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times

"Captures the spirit of convivial storytelling and even encourages the activity. . . . Many readers . . . will be gratified to know that Brunvand intends to continued this series of relaxed, unofficial excursions into popular legends. Admirers of curiosa and the psychology of crowds cannot affors to miss them."—Kirkus Reviews

"It is the charm of Mr. Brunvand's scholarship and presentation that he delivers the sad news of falsehood of these stories without being professorially reproachful toward those who have relayed him."—New York Times Book Review

"Together, these new wives' tales merge as an American picaresque, a compilation of myths that keep the telephone wires humming and cocktail parties doubly fueled."—Time

Alligators in the sewers? A pet in the microwave? 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 at least one story you always believed to be true in this colossal collection. Professor Jan Harold Brunvand is the leading authority on urban legends, and Too Good to Be True now updated and expanded is his most complete anthology. Whether you want to become an expert debunker or just have plenty of laughs, this book will surprise and entertain you."

& Other Lusty Urban Legends

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 comicbook 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.

The Hottest Urban Legends Going

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."

"A wonderfully entertaining book of American folklore and humor."—Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Professor Jan Harold Brunvand expands his examination of the phenomenon of urban legends, those improbable, believable stories that always happen to a "friend of a friend."

"This is a fascinating book, but I still say all those stories actually happened to the mother of a friend of mine's doctor's wife."—Roy Blount Jr.

William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has succeeded in surviving in contemporary culture, and has even managed to penetrate to the most modern media of mass communications. This book, first published in 1991, examines some of the different literary and oral versions of The Taming of the Shrew. This book is ideal for students of literature, drama, and theatre studies.