Book which features over 150 cases of missing people and unidentified bodies from all counties that make up the Pennsylvania Wilds

“Damn, this book is good.”—Jon Stewart “A biting, darkly hilarious collection of personal essays that begs to be read aloud.”—Chicago Tribune Emmy Award–winning writer Adam Resnick began his career at Late Night with David Letterman before honing his chops in movies and cable television, including HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show. While courageously admitting to being “euphorically antisocial,” Resnick plunges readers deep into his troubled psyche in this uproarious memoir-in-essays. Shaped by such touchstone events as a traumatic Easter egg hunt and overwrought by obsessions, he refuses to be burdened by chores like basic social obligation and personal growth, adhering to his own steadfast rule: “I refuse to do anything I don’t want to do.”

25 true murders & mysterious deaths from the 13 counties that make up the Pennsylvania Wilds

The Call of Service and the Trial of War From abolitionists to copperheads, from patriotic volunteer soldiers to deserters, the Pennsylvania Wilds lived up to its adventurous name during the Civil War era. The region not only joined the front lines, but also played its part in the abolition of slavery. Including an extensive Underground Railroad system, many defied the Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to help those desperate to be free pass through the region on their way to Canada. The Wilds had average citizens and heroes alike volunteer for service including women who were not nurses but acted as nurses and those who remained on the home-front. Author Kathy Meyers presents stories of how the war came to the Pennsylvania Wilds and how the people of the Wilds responded.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die. "It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment Weekly McCandess had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world’s attention. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless. When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

Pennsylvania is home to an assortment of odd creatures, and this volume features the best of the bunch. Bigfoot looms large here, trudging the wilds all throughout the state. Other cryptids featured are the gigantic Broad Top Snake, the bizarre Dogman of Westmoreland County, and Bessie, Lake Erie's resident monster. Reports of big cats, giant attacking thunderbirds, bloodsucking wolfmen, and mischievous, mine-dwelling--Tommyknockers are included.