The well-known Ozark folklorist gathers together bawdy tales, previously considered unprintable, that provide insight into the region's rich exotic narrative tradition.

Down in the Holler, first published in 1953, is a classic study of Ozark folklore. The University of Oklahoma Press is especially pleased to introduce such an invaluable and delightfully written book to a new generation of researchers and Americans entranced by the Ozarks and the folkways of the past. Until World War II the backwoodsmen living in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma were the most deliberately "unprogressive" people in the United States. The descendants of pioneers from the southern Appalachians, they changed their way of life very little during the whole span of the nineteenth century and were able to preserve their customs and traditions in an age of industrialism. When the many attractions of the Ozarks were discovered by "outlanders," the tourists--and television--reached the hinterlands, and the old patterns of speech and life began to fade. In this perceptive book, Vance Randolph, who first visited the Ozarks country in 1899, and his collaborator, George P. Wilson, recapture the speech of the people who lived "down in the holler." Randolph, closely identified with the region for many years, hunted possums with its people and shared their table at the House of Lords (a "kind of tavern" in Joplin). Through the years his hobby became a profession, and he spent years recording the various aspects of Ozark folk speech.

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"Vance Randolph was perfectly constituted for his role as the chronicler of Ozark folkways. As a self-described "hack writer," who first visited the region as a child with his middle-class parents, he was as much a figure of the margins as his chosen subjects. And his essentially romantic identification with the Ozarks--encouraged by the editors of the era--was always tempered by his scientific training and his contrarian nature. In The Ozarks, originally published in 1931, we have Randolph's first book-length portrait of the people he would spend the next half-century studying. The full range of Randolph's interests--in language, in hunting and fishing, in folksongs and play parties, in moonshining--is on view in this book that made his name; forever after he was "Mr. Ozark," the region's preeminent expert who would, in collection after collection, enlarge and deepen his debut effort. With a new introduction by Robert Cochran, The Ozarks , an image shaper in its day, a cultural artifact for decades to come, this wonderful book is as entertaining as ever." --Back cover.

In 1951, a young boy in rural Georgia was visited and abducted by group of alien visitors from an unknown dimension. That contact continued over several decades and resulted in the birth of more than sixty hybrid children... and one of the most remarkable stories in all of UFO lore. LOVE IN AN ALIEN PURGATORY is the startling pictorial account of David Huggins' hidden life, as revealed in his own vivd and sometimes disturbing full-color paintings. With commentary and text by UFO investigator Farah Yurdozu, David's story takes the reader into a world between two dimensions: a purgatory of hope, sex, fear and, ultimately, love.

Countless reports from credible individuals suggest that something shocking may be stalking the woods of the southern United States--something massive, bipedal, and covered in hair. Tales of these Southern Sasquatch creatures--such as the one made famous by the 1972 horror movie The Legend of Boggy Creek--date back to the very origins of Deep South history and are reported even today. While Boggy Creek may be the most famous case, the infamous waterway is only the tip of a much broader mystery, one that spills into the surrounding states and beyond. From Arkansas and Oklahoma down to Texas, over to Florida and all the southern states in between, chilling accounts and compelling evidence indicate that a breed of these mysterious, man-like creatures has been successfully hiding in the shadowy foothills, piney woods, and murky swamplands of these areas. Join acclaimed author and outdoorsman Lyle Blackburn as he traverses woods and waterways, delves into dusty archives, and interviews a host of credible eyewitnesses in search of one of the South's most enduring mysteries... the Southern Sasquatch Lyle Blackburn's research and writing on the subject of Bigfoot has been widely recognized as some of the best in the field of cryptozoology. His previous books, including The Beast of Boggy Creek and Lizard Man, offer a balanced view of the subject while delivering gripping accounts of this real-life mystery. Blackburn is a frequent guest on radio programs such as Coast to Coast AM, and has appeared on television shows including Monsters and Mysteries in America and Finding Bigfoot. Blackburn and his research have also been featured in the award-winning documentary film Boggy Creek Monster. "Blackburn shows himself not only to be a first-rate researcher but a formidable writer."-- Fortean Times

A New York Times Book Review EDITORS' CHOICE. From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, comes the vividly told story of Dylan Ebdus growing up white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. In a neighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along with games of stoopball, Dylan has one friend, a black teenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. Through the knitting and unraveling of the boys' friendship, Lethem creates an overwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race and class, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging, loyalty, and memory. "A tour de force.... Belongs to a venerable New York literary tradition that stretches back through Go Tell It on the Mountain, A Walker in the City, and Call it Sleep." --The New York Times Magazine "One of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year.... Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York City, and he brings it to a story worth telling." --Time