Jan Harold Brunvald

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...

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."

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.

"A uniquely entertaining book: edifying scholarship, diverting social history."―Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times "[The book] captures the spirit of convivial storytelling and even encourages the activity. . . . Many readers . . . will be gratified to know that Brunvand intends to continue this...