Blair

Every September, on the first night of the new moon, there are those who vow they see a flaming ship sail three times past the coast of Ocracoke. No matter the direction or velocity of the wind, this fiery vessel moves swiftly toward the northeast, they say, always accompanied by an eerie wailing sound. The story of this ship is but one of the colorful legends intrinsic to the charm of North Carolina's historic coastland. From the northern tip of the Outer Banks to the lower end of the sweeping shoreline, there are stories to be found . . . and to be told with gusto, or awe, or sometimes with horror.

Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest.

From her unique vantage point in New Orleans, Sybil Haydel Morial’s life spans one of the most critical periods in our country’s history. In this remarkable memoir, Morial chronicles her life as both witness to and catalyst for sweeping changes—desegregation, the end of Jim Crow, and the fight for voting rights. These changes transformed the nation during her lifetime. Morial’s story is welcome inspiration for the struggle for political empowerment that continues.

As Ambassador Andrew Young, a childhood friend and later Sybil’s prom date, relates in his foreword: “It is doubtful that New Orleans could have produced two mayors with the dynamic, creative, and visionary leadership of 'Dutch' and Marc Morial without a wife and mother of Sybil’s loving strength, intelligence, and moral courage. But the life she lived in the crucible times and her perception of the civil rights movement in New Orleans goes far beyond that.”

With over two hundred miles of mountain-bike trails, Pisgah National Forest is a Mecca for cycling enthusiasts. In fact, USA Today and leading cycling magazines have lauded the Pisgah District as one of the top five mountain-biking areas in the United States. The trails in the Pisgah District meander through hardwood coves, snake along mountain streams, and climb to scenic overlooks nearly 5,000 feet high. The 30 rides in this guide range from steep climbs and thrilling descents that will challenge expert cyclists to easy trails for novices and children. Each ride includes information about trail access, elevation changes, and seasonal usage, along with a map, a difficulty rating, and a detailed, mile-by-mile account of the trails themselves. The text is illustrated with over 50 black-and-white photographs that show mountain biking in North Carolina at its absolute best.

Before her untimely death, freelance writer Lori Finley published articles in a number of magazines, including Bicycling, Paddler, and Bike Report.

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was one of the most notorious pirates ever to plague the Atlantic coast. He was also one of the most colorful pirates of all time, becoming the model for countless blood-and-thunder tales of sea rovers. His daring exploits, personal courage, terrifying appearance, and fourteen wives made him a legend in his own lifetime. The legends and myths about Blackbeard have become wilder rather than tamer in the 250 years since his gory but valiant death at Ocracoke Inlet. It is difficult for historians, and all but impossible for the general reader, to separate fact from fiction. Author Robert E. Lee has studied virtually every scrap of information available about the pirate and his contemporaries in an attempt to find the real Blackbeard. The result is a fascinating and authoritative study that reads like an exciting swashbuckler. Lee goes beyond the myths and the image Teach so carefully cultivated to reveal a new Blackbeard—infinitely more interesting as a man than as a legend. In the process, he has captured the spirit and character of a vanished age, "the golden age of piracy."

Robert E. Lee was a former law professor who traced his own ancestry to a possible link with Blackbeard. A native of Kinston, North Carolina, he earned degrees from Wake Forest, Columbia, and Duke universities. The author of sixteen law books, Lee wrote the newspaper column "This is the Law".

From Blackbeard's den at Ocracoke, to the Hills of the Seven Sisters at Nags Head, to the misty swamps of Shallote, there is hardly an inch of territory along North Carolina's coast without a legend attached to it. Inlanders may be skeptical regarding the sometimes miraculous, often horror-filled tales that make up coastal folklore, but Outer Bankers accept the incredible as fact. But this book is more than a collection of coastal legends. It is an affectionate portrait of the people who daily pull a living out of the treacherous waters of the Atlantic . . . a tribute to the hardiness and courage that have made the Banker a rare breed . . . a breed whose true stories are, indeed, stranger than fiction.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest. Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

First published in 1956, this popular classic tells the story of the small island of Ocracoke, certainly one of the loveliest pearls on the Outer Banks. Rich in history and legend, Ocracoke is a storyteller's dream. Carl Goerch had a sixty-year love affair with the island, and he does it justice in these entertaining and humorous stories. Goerch captures Ocracoke as it was more than sixty years ago, preserving it for the reader and vacationer of today. Many things have changed since his extended visits to the island. There are paved roads, police and a bank now, and most of the conveniences of modern life. Yet many things remain the same. The simple lifestyle, the spirit of the hardy islanders, the legends of pirates, storms and shipwrecks, the charm and beauty of the unspoiled beaches.

The late Carl Goerch was known as "Mr. North Carolina." He excelled in several fields: as the long-term reading clerk for the state house of representatives, a popular broadcaster, newspaper columnist, book author, and a widely sought speaker "full of good humor." Goerch also founded the popular magazine The State, still published today as Our State. He had visited all fifty states and fifty-two foreign countries, but if you asked him his favorite spot on earth, he no doubt would have said Ocracoke.

According to archivists at the Library of Congress, South Carolina is richer in folklore than any other state. After traveling almost every back road in several South Carolina counties, Nancy Rhyne wholeheartedly supports the claim. With her tape recorder in hand, the author interviewed dozens of Low Country people, finding that almost every person had a story to tell. She sought out everyone from millionaires to the humblest of coastal people. From their narratives she has fashioned a collection of stories steeped in the history and character of the Low Country. Some of the tales in this collection are humorous, some mysterious. Others are positively eerie. There are stories of killer hurricanes, bizarre voodoo practices and inexplicable happenings. Effortlessly, the author takes us from a gorgeous plantation estate of the 1850s to an overgrown and forbidding cemetery in 1979. And she never fails to keep our attention on this somewhat alien but fascinating world—a world peopled with witch doctors, ghosts, cruel overseers, slaves and world-famous personalities. Nancy Rhyne has taken scattered bits of folklore and oral narratives, combined these with her gift of storytelling, and created a wonderfully engaging book that will entertain readers for years to come.

Nancy Rhyne has traveled all over the world and has collected coastal folklore on three continents, Greece, and the British Isles. But her first love is the South Carolina coast, and she has written dozens of articles and books about the area, its history, and its legends. While living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, she taught a course on South Carolina folklore at Coastal Carolina College in Conway. She now lives in Ft. Myers, Florida.

The Andy Griffith Show was one of the most successful series in television history. It ranked among the top ten shows in the nation during each of its eight prime-time seasons, from 1960 to 1968. Over forty years later, the 249 episodes still remain some of the most frequently watched syndicated shows on television. In this book, Richard Kelly makes clear to everyone, from the occasional fan to the serious student of television, why The Andy Griffith Show is still so beloved.

Richard Kelly is a native New Yorker and received his doctorate from Duke University in Durham, NC. Professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, with a focus on 19th-century English literature, he has also written biographies of Douglas Jerrold, Lewis Carroll, George du Maurier, and Graham Greene. He has been a recipient of the Lindsay Young Professorship.

Whedbee's collections of legends and folklore have become regional classics. The continuing popularity of these books stems from the author's intimate knowledge of the places, people, and events of which he writes. He gathers the mysteries, tales, legends, and lore that have been handed down for generations on the North Carolina coast and recounts them with a sensitivity for tradition that makes him a master at what he does.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest.

Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

Former slaves themselves—an important but long-neglected source of information about the institution of slavery in the United States. Who could better describe what slavery was like than the people who experienced it? And describe it they did, in thousands of remarkable interviews sponsored by the Federal Writers’ Project during the 1930s. More than 170 interviews were conducted in North Carolina. Belinda Hurmence pored over each of the North Carolina narratives, compiling and editing 21 of the first-person accounts for this collection.

Belinda Hurmence was born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, and educated at the University of Texas and Columbia University. She has written several novels for young people, including Tough Tiffany (an ALA Notable Book), A Girl Called Boy (winner of the Parents' Choice Award), Tancy (winner of a Golden Kite Award), and The Nightwalker.

She has also edited We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard and Before Freedom, When I Just Can Remember, companion volumes to this book. She now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Silk Flags and Cold Steel recalls the events that took place in the Piedmont region of North Carolina between late 1860 and mid-1865. Though the skirmishes in the Piedmont were more strategic than tactical, they were important to the health of the Southern cause. As long as the railways of North Carolina were operating freely and the state's farms were producing to capacity, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia could move, eat, fight, and replenish itself. North Carolina's relations with the Confederate government of Jefferson Davis were complex, touchy, and often antagonistic, for the state had been reluctant to secede and there was strong Unionist sentiment throughout the state. President Davis never particularly trusted North Carolina, a fact that blinded him to the state's strategic value. Paradoxically, no state contributed more to the Confederate cause in terms of manpower and resources than did North Carolina. Along with discussion of the political climate, the book presents accounts of the Salisbury prison, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, confrontations at Bentonville, Raleigh, and Greensboro, and Joe Johnston's surrender at Bennett's Farm.

William R. (Bill) Trotter is an essayist, book reviewer, and author of The Civil War in North Carolina and A Frozen Hell, among other books, as well as several short stories and novellas, and has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. He wrote a monthly column called "The Desktop General" for PC Gamer magazine until 2004. He was the first recipient of the North Carolina English Teachers' Association "Lifetime Achievement Award." He lives in Greensboro, NC.

For centuries, the mountains of western North Carolina have inspired wonder and awe. It was only natural that man, after gazing at such scenic wonders, would turn some of the mystery he felt into legend. Sometimes these legends attempted to explain natural phenomena, sometimes they attempted to explain an occurrence that appeared to be supernatural, and sometimes they grew up around the eccentric characters that were drawn to the isolation of these mysterious hills. This collection of eighteen stories presents some of the mystery and awe that the mountains convey, and it may alter your perception of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains forever. You may never stand atop Roan Mountain during a storm without thinking you hear a ghostly choir. You may gaze at the top of Chimney Rock during a hazy summer afternoon and wonder if it really is a ghostly cavalry fight you see. If you spend the night near High Hampton, you may find yourself listening for the call of the lonesome white owl. If you stand at Wiseman's View, you will probably think that you, too, can see the Brown Mountain Lights. Standing atop Clingman's Dome, you may wonder if there really is an enchanted lake where animals flock to heal their wounds somewhere in the valley below. And you will always wonder if the fly you hear on your mountain walk means that Spearfinger is lurking nearby.

For several years, folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have taught a course about Southern folklore at the North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Russell is also the author of several mysteries, including Edgar Award nominee Hot Wire. They live in Asheville, North Carolina.

One August night, two young law students knocked three times on the huge door to Blackbeard's castle, spoke the secret password, and gained admission to a ceremony steeped in local legend. Judge Charles Harry Whedbee was one of those students, and he waited for over fifty years to tell the story of the night he drank from Blackbeard's Cup—the legendary silver-plated skull of Blackbeard the Pirate. For centuries, the people of eastern North Carolina have spun tales to explain local phenomena and bizarre happenings. For decades, Judge Whedbee collected and preserved that lore. In Blackbeard's Cup and Stories of the Outer Banks, he once again went to the source and returned with sixteen tales that attest to the rich oral tradition of the coastal area. Why does the stone arch over the entrance to Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Bern drip blood on passing mourners? Who carved the name CORA in the gigantic live oak tree on Hatteras Island? What causes the sound of cannons firing off the coast of Vandemere in the summer? How did the rare creature known as the sea angel come to be? Why did an Edenton doctor spend a fortune searching for buried treasure? These are only a few of the mysteries contained in this fifth collection from North Carolina's beloved raconteur.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest.

Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest.

Ironclads and Columbiads recounts the exciting battles and events that shook the coast of North Carolina during America's bloodiest war. Throughout the Civil War, North Carolina's coast was of great strategic importance to the Confederacy. Its well-protected coastline offered a perfect refuge for privateers who sallied forth and captured so many Union merchant vessels in the early days of the war that maritime insurance companies in the North went into a panic, forcing the government to mount an expedition against Cape Hatteras. North Carolina's coastal counties and the state's coastal railroad system were vital to the feeding and resupply of Robert E. Lee's army. And even after the tightening blockade and powerful Federal assaults closed off the ports of Charleston, New Orleans, and Mobile, Wilmington continued to provide a haven for blockade runners. That city eventually became the most strategically important location in the entire Confederacy. To subdue Fort Fisher, which stoutly defended Wilmington, the Union was forced to assemble what was then the largest naval and amphibious landing force in American history.

William R. (Bill) Trotter is an essayist, book reviewer, and author of The Civil War in North Carolina and A Frozen Hell, among other books, as well as several short stories and novellas, and has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. He wrote a monthly column called "The Desktop General" for PC Gamer magazine until 2004. He was the first recipient of the North Carolina English Teachers' Association "Lifetime Achievement Award." He lives in Greensboro, NC.

In the 1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project undertook a massive effort at gathering the oral testimony of former slaves. Those ex-slaves were in their declining years by the time of the Great Depression, but Elizabeth Sparks, Elige Davison, and others like them nonetheless provided a priceless record of life under the yoke: where slaves lived, how they were treated, what they ate, how they worked, how they adjusted to freedom. Here, Belinda Hurmence presents the interviews of 21 former Virginia slaves. This is a companion volume to Hurmence’s popular collections of North Carolina and South Carolina slave narratives, My Folks Don’t Want Me to Talk About Slavery and Before Freedom, When I Just Can Remember.

Belinda Hurmence was born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, and educated at the University of Texas and Columbia University. She has written several novels for young people, including Tough Tiffany (an ALA Notable Book), A Girl Called Boy (winner of the Parents' Choice Award), Tancy (winner of a Golden Kite Award), and The Nightwalker. She now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Bushwhackers recounts hundreds of incidents that brought the Civil War home to the mountains of the Old North State. Some are violent, some humorous; some are heroic, some shameful. From the opening shots of the war to the vicious acts of vengeance that continued for months and even years after the war ended, Bushwhackers relates the tragic and rarely told tale of how the Civil War was fought among the proud mountain people of North Carolina.

William R. (Bill) Trotter is an essayist, book reviewer, and author of The Civil War in North Carolina and A Frozen Hell, among other books, as well as several short stories and novellas, and has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. He wrote a monthly column called "The Desktop General" for PC Gamer magazine until 2004. He was the first recipient of the North Carolina English Teachers' Association "Lifetime Achievement Award." He lives in Greensboro, NC.

Georgetown County, located between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina, is steeped in tales of dynamic men and women who once lived and prospered here. Though these men and women have now passed away, many of their spirits still remain. There are rumored to be over a hundred ghosts in the area, making Georgetown County one of the nation's most haunted locations. Ghosts of Georgetown tells the stories of twenty of these apparitions. The ghosts in these tales range from the woman who died a horrible and tragic death on her wedding day, to the daughter of a former lighthouse keeper who warns sailors of impending storms, to the phantom choir whose voices can still be heard coming from the ruins of its former church. The stories tell of scorned lovers, innocent children, and wealthy plantation owners who have all returned to Georgetown long after their natural lives on earth were over. These tales weave the history of Georgetown's colorful past with the eerie spirits who roam the region in the present.

Elizabeth Huntsinger is a South Carolina native whose mother’s family came to the state in the 1600s and whose father immigrated there from Scotland. Her first home in Georgetown County was a 1948-vintage 40-foot mahogany Chris Craft boat anchored in the Waccamaw River. Now a landlubber, she lives in a neighborhood built on the site of one of the area’s many rice plantations. In addition to being a full-time storyteller/literacy instructor for Georgetown County preschoolers, she leads Ghosts of Georgetown Lantern Tours and is an avid Civil War reenactor.

When Wilbur and Orville Wright arrived on North Carolina’s Outer Banks in the year 1900, they were unknown bicycle mechanics who dreamed of powered flight. Even after they achieved the first heavier-than-air, powered flight in the dunes of Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903, they remained obscure. But by the time of Orville’s last flights on the Outer Banks in 1911, they were two of the most famous men of the twentieth century. In First in Flight, author Stephen Kirk describes in marvelous detail the undeniable influence that the landscape and people of the Outer Banks had on the Wright Brothers’ quest for flight and, in turn, the lasting effect that the Wright brothers’ success had on this once-desolate region. With its lively and often humorous narrative, First in Flight presents a broader context for the Wrights’ activities on the Outer Banks than any other book about the famous brothers. It details every aspect of the Wrights’ life on the North Carolina coast—the lifesavers they associated with, the local citizens they befriended, the other outsiders who came to the Outer Banks to participate in and report on their experiments, the Wrights’ perspective on local lifestyles, and the locals’ perspective on them.

When Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg arrived at Muddy Creek in January 1753, he deserved a rest. Sent by the Moravian Church to find land for a settlement, he headed west from Edenton, North Carolina, and spent a tortuous 3 ½ months locating a site, nearly dying of malaria in Granville County, nearly freezing to death near Boone. Today, most people would judge his efforts worth the hardship. He christened the tract on Muddy Creek Der Wachau—Wachovia. It was the future site of Winston-Salem. The people who followed came by an easier route. The Moravians who built Salem came from the north on the Great Wagon Road. R. J. Reynolds, the man who built Winston-Salem, came from the north, too, 120 years after the Moravians. A local writer once said the moving forces behind the hyphenated city were "the Salem conscience and the Winston purse." The Moravians established a tradition of diligence, resourcefulness, piety, and charity. The city's capitalists—chief among them the Reynolds, Hanes, and Gray families—built the greatest industrial center south of Richmond and east of Mississippi. Wachovia Bank and Trust Company grew into one of the best-run banks in the country. P. H. Hanes Knitting Company became the nation's greatest producer of knitwear. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company imported so much cigarette paper and tobacco that Winston-Salem—200 miles inland—was declared a port of entry. During its heyday, the company paid its local taxes by delivering a truckload of money to the courthouse steps—daily.

Winston-Salem: A History tells about the city's personalities: Marshall Kurfees, the persistent politician; Simon Green Atkins, who educated the African-Americans who made the city run; Z. Smith Reynolds, whose mysterious death defies explanation; F. Ross Johnson, the most hated man in town; Joe Camel, the reluctant advertising icon. It also tells about the city's coming of age. Since the traumatic buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1989—one of the largest business deals in history—Winston-Salem has started redefining itself. In its efforts to attract new companies, cultivate new leadership, and address problems like race relations, it is confronting its future head-on and pointing confidently toward a new millennium.

Frank Tursi was a newspaper journalist for almost 30 years—the last 23 at the Winston-Salem Journal where he was the environmental and special-projects reporter. He has won numerous state and national writing awards for his environmental reporting, including the Scripps-Howard National Environmental Award and The Sierra Club's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. A graduate of East Carolina University, Tursi has contributed to such publications as USA Today and Civil War Times Illustrated. Frank is currently the Cape Lookout Coastkeeper for the N.C. Coastal Federation. He lives in Swansboro, North Carolina.

There was little funny about a war in which 620,000 humans died. But it was finding humor amid devastation that kept Civil War soldiers marching toward the enemy. Union or Confederate, those in command proved adept at making mistakes. Many leaders were drunkards, couldn't speak English, didn't know a cannon's breech from its muzzle. Among the galleries of heroes were: Colonel Edward Baker, who told his Federals to follow the plume of his hat if they wanted to find war—and sent them over a cliff in a panicked retreat; General Felix Zollicoffer, who wore a white raincoat so opposing Federals could see him—but not his eyeglasses so he could see them; Thomas Selfridge of the Union navy, who "found two torpedoes and removed them by placing his vessel over them"; Colonel Alfred Rhett, a captured Southern blue blood whose fancy boots proved too small for every Union officer who coveted them; rum-drinking James Ledlie and dance-instructing Edward Ferrero, generals who kept each other company in a Union bombproof while their men faced slaughter. From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Civil War Blunders traces the war according to its amusing, often deadly miscues. Lurking behind every significant action, as readers will discover, was someone with a red face.

Clint Johnson is a native of Fish Branch, Florida, who has written eight books about the Civil War, as well as biographies and newspaper and magazine articles. He received his journalism degree from the University of Florida, and now lives in North Carolina.

On October 3, 1960, The Andy Griffith Show began its eight-year reign as one of the top-ten television shows in the country. Now, almost 50 years later, the original 249 episodes still remain among the most frequently watched syndicated shows on television. In 1991, Neal Brower began to write a regular column called "Professor Brower's Class" in The Bullet, the newsletter for the show's fan club, The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club. The Bullet, which was published three times a year, was distributed to approximately 15,000 members of the 1,000 worldwide chapters. In his column, Brower focused on one of the show's episodes. Through interviews with writers, directors, producers, actors, and other people associated with the show, Brower offered insights into the scriptwriting, production, photography, casting, and musical scoring. Although Brower's first few columns consisted primarily of his personal observations and comments about the episode, later columns concentrated on letting the participants tell the Mayberry story. Brower realized that the pace of writing only three episodes a year was too slow a process. The stories that he discovered needed to be told before the memories faded. This book resulted from the need to tell the story in a more timely format. In this volume, Brower focuses on the 79 episodes written by Harvey Bullock, Everett Greenbaum, Sam Bobrick, and their partners. These writers were responsible for such popular episodes as "Opie the Birdman," "Mr. McBeevee," "My Fair Ernest T. Bass," "The Pickle Story," "A Date for Gomer," and "The Darlings Are Coming." When asked if he would help with this project, writer Everett Greenbaum responded, "Neal, I will be glad to answer your questions because I feel it is important to keep the memories alive." Thanks to Everett and all who shared their observations, Mayberry 101 now preserves a behind-the-scenes peak at the Mayberry story.

Neal Brower, a United Methodist minister, teaches a ten-week course about The Andy Griffith Show at community colleges throughout North Carolina. Since 1988, he has taught the course over twenty times at six colleges. He is a native of Asheboro, North Carolina.

As the author of twelve ghost story collections, Nancy Roberts may certainly be considered an expert on the subject of the supernatural. In this book, she turns her attention to Georgia, capturing over fifty chilling stories from the Peachtree State. Perhaps no other city in this country is as haunted as Savannah. Beneath this city's romantic façade, lies a multitude of eerie tales. Here, Roberts describes the pirates that still reside in the Pirates' House Restaurant, the angry spirit who haunts the Shrimp Factory restaurant, the strange happenings in the house of Jim Williams—the central character in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil—and many other spooky stories. The ghost stories of Savannah are only the beginning, though, for Georgia Ghosts takes you on a supernatural tour throughout the state. On St. Simons Island, you will shiver at the account of the ghost who haunts the island's lighthouse. In Atlanta, you'll hear of the ghost who now resides in the "Uncle Remus" House. In Fayetteville, you'll learn why the legendary gunslinger "Doc" Holliday still waits outside the home of a lost love. And you will wonder about the identity of the mysterious man responsible for Georgia's own version of Stonehenge located near Elberton. From haunted college towns and opera houses to tales of werewolves that roam the countryside, no other collection covers the contemporary and classic ghost stories of the state as completely as Georgia Ghosts.

Nancy Roberts, a popular Southern writer and storyteller, was the acclaimed, award-winning author of more than twenty-five books where she blended suspense, mystery, and history with a talent for finding true stories of the supernatural. She was aptly proclaimed the "Custodian of the Twilight Zone" by Southern Living magazine, and was frequently introduced as the "First Lady of Folklore." She was the featured speaker or teller at the North Carolina Museum of History; Thalian Hall in Wilmington, North Carolina; Kiawah Island Resort, South Carolina; University of Illinois at De Kalb; and at many schools and libraries throughout the southeast. She passed away in the fall of 2008.

Set off the treacherous Outer Banks of North Carolina during the final days of the First World War, Hatteras Light is the compelling story of the dedicated keepers of the Hatteras lighthouse and their tightly knit community. For generations these men have drawn their livelihood from the sea, served in the rescue of shipwreck victims, and guarded seagoers from the hazardous shoals. Their wives and daughters endure a difficult, solitary life, their fortitude constantly tested. Loyal to one another and to a traditional way of life, the islanders are suspicious of outsiders and censorious of those who leave. The insular world of these Hatterasmen disrupts when a German U-boat reveals itself offshore, indiscriminately sinking civilian and military vessels, challenging the courage of the lifesavers, and signaling the dawning of a darker, less honorable age. Over a few crucial days, we become intimate with these men and women, and with the German officers aboard U-55 who have made the islanders' lives hell. What emerges is an adventure story full of wisdom and compassion, a novel unfailingly accurate in portraying the struggle of man and sea, man against man, and of men and women. Based on historical fact, Philip Gerard's novel is a powerful book whose storytelling represents the most human tendencies in life and art.

Philip Gerard is the author of five novels and eight books of nonfiction, including Down the Wild Cape Fear: A River Journey Through the Heart of North Carolina and The Patron Saint of Dreams, winner of the 2012 North American Gold Medal in Essay/Creative Nonfiction from The Independent Publisher.

In 1985 Jan DeBlieu moved to Hatteras Island and took up residence in the old home of one of the Outer Banks' most historic families. For more than a year she explored the island's dunes, marshes, waters, and towns to study its complex natural cycles, its fragile ecosystem, its bird, plant, and marine life, and the seasonal routines of its stoical residents. In Hatteras Journal she writes evocatively of a harsh but alluring world, where "in summer the sea oats explode with tawny seeds, the black shimmers glide over Pamlico Sound, the loggerheads heave themselves ashore on silent nights." Along with her perceptive observations about the natural life she encounters, she describes the futility of former government policies such as dune construction, the dangers of peat mining to the sounds and bays, the efforts to protect loggerhead turtles on Bald Head Island, and the evolution of Hurricane Gloria and its effects on the barrier islands. This is a vividly rendered account of the rigors and rewards of dwelling in a habitat where only the most resilient forms of life—natural and human—manage to prevail.

Jan DeBlieu is the author of four books and dozens of articles and essays about people and nature. Her first book, Hatteras Journal

“Not since Ben MacNeil wrote The Hatterasman in the 1950s has that bare bone of sand between Bodie and Ocracoke islands been written about so affectionately, intelligently, and well.” —Norfolk Virginian-Pilot

Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown comprise Virginia's historic triangle. Some of the most important chapters of America's history unfolded in these settlements. The region has been the scene of violent confrontations between settlers and the original natives, an emotional struggle for independence, a bitter civil war, and, most recently, a transformation into one of the country's finest examples of historic restoration. Some parapsychologists believe that spirits can be awakened by a sudden flurry of activity. With so much activity occurring throughout the area's history, it is little wonder that there are so many documented sightings of ghosts in this triangle. In this book, Jackie Behrend brings together thirty-seven of the region's most intriguing spirits. From Williamsburg come tales about the Wagon of Death, which can still be heard rolling down Nicholson Street as it brings prisoners to the gallows; the colonial celebrations that continue at the Raleigh Tavern; the residential area where all is quiet except for the ghosts still fighting the Revolutionary War; and the ongoing wedding that brings men form both sides of the Civil War together. From Yorktown come stories about the sounds that emanate from the cave where Lord Cornwallis hid during the town's siege during 1781; the mournful tune that is heard on Surrender Field; and the melancholy feeling that overcomes people retracing the path where slaves were once marched. From Jamestown comes the tale of a deserted lover's angry ghost who still haunts the banks of the James River. From Carter's Grove comes the story of a slave who still searches Old Country Road for his lost family. Just as you can step back in time by visiting the restored settlements of the historic triangle, you can now revisit the past through the stories about the ghostly spirits who haunt Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown.

When Hauntings of Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown was written, Jackie Eileen Behrend was the owner of J.B. Tours, which offered guided tours of the historic Triangle. Her most popular tour, “The Haunted Williamsburg Tour”, was conducted by lantern light and featured many of the stories in this book. Jackie later moved to Ocean City, Maryland, where she led tours of Ocean City and Berlin. She now lives in Pensacola, Florida.

Witches who fly down chimneys. A chair that won’t release its occupant until a drop of blood stains the floor. A mountain that grew—and continues to grow—from the grave of a woman who was larger than life. The ghost of a woman who jumps on the bumpers of cars driving past the graveyard where she is buried. An apple tree that growls at people who pick its fruit. A woman who rose from her grave each night to get food for a baby born to her after she was buried. A peach tree that grows on the head of a deer. These and other legends and ghost stories handed down for generations are contained in this collection of 25 tales from East Tennessee.

For several years, folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have taught a course about Southern folklore at the North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Russell is also the author of several mysteries, including Edgar Award nominee Hot Wire.They live in Asheville, North Carolina.

Even devoted readers of mountain-bike magazines may be unaware of the great rail trails of southwest Virginia and the outstanding trails in Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. In northwest North Carolina, the rides around Boone and Blowing Rock, Wilson Creek, Linville Gorge, and Boone Fork are also little-known treasures. You'd better take advantage of the solitude now, because mountain biking this good will not remain untouched by fame. The high country of northwest North Carolina and southwest Virginia is a labyrinth of single-track trails, logging roads, and overgrown jeep tracks. The 33 rides in this guide, ranging from easy to extremely strenuous, are some of the region's "classics." Each chapter includes information about trail access and elevation changes, along with a map, a difficulty rating, and a detailed, mile-by-mile account of the ride. The text is illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout.

Before her untimely death, freelance writer Lori Finley published articles in a number of magazines, including Bicycling, Paddler, and Bike Report.

Thomas Horsch lives in Damascus, Virginia, where he was a former president of the Virginia Creeper Trail Club. He served on the Board of Directors of the Iron Mountain Trail Club and was a trail-maintenance volunteer for the U.S. Forest Service.

After the fall of Charleston during the American Revolution, South Carolina was devoid of any organized resistance to the British army. It was under these circumstances that Francis Marion organized his famous band of partisans. They resorted to hit-and-run tactics, operating out of the impenetrable swamps of the region. Every man and boy who joined Marion's force was a volunteer. Everyone furnished his own clothing and weapons. When Marion issued a call, his men left their farms and reported with arms in hand. Under Marion's clever direction, the band eluded British general Banastre Tarleton so frequently that he was recalled by Cornwallis. As Tarleton left, he remarked, "As for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him." The nickname "Swamp Fox" stuck with Marion from then on. After the war, those who knew of Marion's exploits pressured Peter Horry, one of Marion's closest friends and an officer in his brigade, to write a biography of the hero. Horry later sent his manuscript to Mason L. "Parson" Weems, who had gained fame for his publication of The Life of Washington. Just as he had evoked poetic license with the story of young Washington chopping down a cherry tree, Weems took liberties to spice up Marion's story. Horry therefore disassociated himself from the book when it was published in 1824. William Gilmore Simms, who wrote a later biography of Marion, described Weems's efforts: "Weems had rather loose notions of the privileges of the biographer, though in reality, he has transgressed much less in his Life of Marion than I generally supposed. But the untamed, and sometimes extravagant exuberance, of his style might well subject his narrative to suspicion." Recently, Hollywood has shown renewed interest in the life of the Swamp Fox, so it seems only appropriate that the first biography of this true American hero be made easily accessible once again. Marion's daring, cunning, and adventuresome spirit still inspire admiration over 200 years later. And although Weems may have taken some liberties with the facts, he sure tells a whopping good story.

From Linville Gorge to the Davidson River Valley, the land comprising Pisgah National Forest has been a source of pleasure to hikers for generations. This guide details almost 100 of the forest's finest trails, selected for their views, the waterfalls they visit, and the diversity of plant and animal life present. The authors hiked all the trails using a hand-held GPS unit. Each trail entry includes distance, elevation gained, GPS coordinates at various points, and a detailed description of the terrain and landscape. The guide also includes maps, as well as sidebars on first aid and items of historic and botanical interest. Black-and-white photos are scattered throughout. Appendixes provide lists of loop trails, hikes for children and the elderly, half-day and full-day hikes, and trails accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Franklin Goldsmith has a degree in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received a degree in engineering from North Carolina State University. His sister, Shannon Hamrick, and her husband, James Hamrick, both held undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Franklin and Shannon grew up in McDowell County, North Carolina, at the edge of the Grandfather District of Pisgah National Forest. All three are experienced hikers.

Blackbeard the Pirate. Thomas Wolfe. Tobacco king Washington Duke. President James K. Polk. Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman together in the same room. You never know whom you might meet at North Carolina’s state historic sites. Or what you might find. Town Creek Indian Mound was formerly a popular site among souvenir hunters in search of Native American artifacts. The area around Reed Gold Mine once yielded nuggets as large as 28 pounds. The 22 sites featured in this book cover the entire breadth of Tar Heel history. Visitors interested in colonial and Revolutionary War days might like Historic Halifax, Brunswick Town, Alamance Battleground, and the House in the Horseshoe. Those who prefer Civil War history will enjoy Bentonville Battleground, the CSS Neuse Memorial, and once-mighty Fort Fisher. Those who would make the acquaintance of noteworthy sons and daughters couldn’t do better than the Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace and the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial. A family favorite is the North Carolina Transportation Museum, where guests can take a train ride, visit a roundhouse and a turntable, and see exhibits of classic cars, locomotives, and cabooses. The only comprehensive guide to North Carolina’s state historic sites, this book tells the story behind each site, provides visitor information, and captures each site in photographs.

A graduate of East Carolina University, Gary L. McCullough had his interest in North Carolina history kindled by volunteering as a docent at the Charlotte Museum of History and Hezekiah Alexander Homesite. He works for the Herff Jones Company, a printer of school yearbooks. North Carolina’s State Historic Sites is his first book. He lives in Matthews, North Carolina.

In 1929, the Social Sciences Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, began recording the oral histories of former slaves. During the mid-1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project undertook a similar effort, ultimately compiling more than two thousand interviews and ten thousand pages of material in seventeen states. In this volume, thirty-six former slaves living in Tennessee recount what it was like to live under the yoke. Tennessee was not a large slaveholding state compared with others in the South. On the other hand, it was a leader in the abolition movement prior to 1830 and a powder keg of mixed Union and Confederate sympathies at the time of the Civil War. The voices in this volume thus recall the extreme conditions of slavery in the border country.

Originally from San Antonio, Andrea Sutcliffe has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a writer, editor, and publications manager in the Washington, DC, area for twenty years. Her writing and editing career began in 1990 as director of the EEI Press in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1996, Andrea Sutcliffe moved to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to devote herself full-time to writing. Andrea’s love of her new home in the mountains of western Virginia, and a desire to learn more about the region’s fascinating history, led to her book, Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads.

Award-winning husband-and-wife folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have gone to the dogs. Digging deeply through the rich field of Southern folklore, the authors have discovered that a dog's devotion to its human does not always end at the grave. Dogs can be as peculiar as people. Their relationship with humans is complex. In story after story from Southern homes, there is strong evidence that this relationship can extend beyond death. Do dogs return from the other side to comfort and aid their human companions? You bet your buried bones they do. In Ghost Dogs of the South, you'll meet the following: A stray dog that warns Kentucky coal miners of impending disaster; a literary critic of a dog with the gift of speech; a dog-snatching mermaid on the Mississippi River; a Tennessee dog that returns year after year to go trick-or-treating; a pair of Georgia hounds that stumble upon an enchanted woods; a girl whose pain is eased by the ghost of a butterfly dog. Dog ghosts (dogs that have become ghosts), ghost dogs (humans who return as ghosts in the shape of dogs), dogs that see ghosts, dogs that are afraid of ghosts—all make an appearance in these twenty stories that illuminate the shadow side of man's best friend.

For several years, folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have taught a course about Southern folklore at the North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Russell is also the author of several mysteries, including Edgar Award nominee Hot Wire.They live in Asheville, North Carolina.

"Alternately eerie, funny, tragic and sentimental . . . These tales will undoubtedly delight dog lovers and will not fail to charm even the most dour skeptics of supernatural phenomena." —Publishers Weekly

In his introduction to Prayin’ to Be Set Free, Andrew Waters likens the personal accounts of former Mississippi slaves to the music of that state’s legendary blues artists. The pain, the modest eloquence, and even the underlying vitality are much the same. What is now Mississippi wasn’t acquired by the United States until 1798, at which time it had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, excluding Native Americans. By the Civil War, it had over 430,000 slaves and 350,000 whites. More than half the whites were members of slave-owning families. The majority of slaves worked in the cotton fields. Mississippi was known as a slave-buying frontier state, in contrast to the eastern states, which sold slaves westward. Indeed, many of the former slaves in this book speak of coming to Mississippi as children. At the height of the Depression, the out-of-work wordsmiths who comprised the Federal Writers’ Project began interviewing elderly African-Americans about their experiences under slavery. The former slaves were more than 70 years removed from bondage, but the memories of many of them were strikingly clear. The accounts from former Mississippi slaves are considered among the strongest in the entire collection. The 28 narratives presented here are the best of those.

Andrew Waters is a writer and former editor. A native North Carolinian, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Creative Writing and received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the executive director of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy in Spartanburg, SC.

Whether you like sleeping among spirits or simply enjoy reading a good ghost story, Haunted Inns of the Southeast is your guide to ninety mysterious places across nine states. At the Don Cesar Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida, you might witness a man dressed like Panama Jack chatting with workers. He is Thomas Rowe, the resort's founder, who died more than sixty years ago. At the Andrew Jackson Hotel in New Orleans—America's most openly haunted city—the courtyard is turned into a playground by orphans who perished in a fire many years past. At the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, author Sheila Turnage checks into room 545 and tries to solve the mystery of the "Pink Lady." In Union, South Carolina, guests at the Merridun may be joined in bed by the ghost of a little white dog. You'll be both chilled and amused by these stories, some of which are related here for the first time by the inns' owners and employees. You'll also appreciate the hard information—addresses, phone numbers, price ranges—in case you'd like to pay a visit.

Sheila Turnage's Three Times LuckyMo and Dale Mystery series was a Newbery Honor winner, New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Finalist, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor book. Her writing has appeared in Southern Living, Early American Homes, American Legacy, International Poetry Review, and many other publications. She lives on a farm in eastern North Carolina.

From the time they established formal ties with Great Britain in 1730, the Cherokees had a rocky relationship with white settlers. They found grounds for dispute over trade practices, territorial control, and the complicated loyalties among the various Indian tribes and European powers. Over the years, the Cherokees struggled to maintain their ancient traditions as the tribe was assimilated into the white man’s culture. Cherokee Voices uses the participants’ own words to tell the story of early Cherokee life. The selections were gathered from journals, treaty records, and correspondence written by Cherokees or by Europeans or Americans who knew them. The excerpts begin with the 1730 visit of Alexander Cuming, who appointed an “emperor” for the Cherokees. Touching on matters as varied as the Cherokees’ oral tradition, their village life, their ball games, their treaties with white settlers, their famous Cherokee Phoenix newspaper, and their education in Christian mission schools, the chapters take readers from when the Cherokees were dependent on European trade to when they became self-sufficient farmers and tradesmen. Unlike most books about the Cherokees, written in the third person by authors who lived years after the events, this one recognizes that no one can speak more eloquently of their lives, trials, and customs than the people themselves.

Vicki Rozema is the author of Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation and Voices from the Trail of Tears. The first edition of Footsteps of the Cherokees received an Award of Merit from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1996. Also an acclaimed photographer, she is a history professor at the University of Tennessee.

Mountain midwife Orlean Puckett endured many trials during her lifetime. A bride at the age of 16, she had given birth to and buried 24 babies by the time she was in her mid-thirties. When John Puckett, her husband, deserted the Civil War, Orlean was besieged by Home Guard Troops. Still, she secretly carried food to John and others who hid out near her home. Orlean became a midwife when she was 45 years of age. During the next 49 years, she successfully delivered over a thousand babies. Traveling on foot or by horse, Orlean never failed to make her way to a birthing. When ice covered the mountain paths, she hammered nails into the soles of her shoes to assure proper footing. A year after Orlean “caught” her last baby, construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway forced her from her home. Three weeks later, at the age of 95, she died. A marker honoring the life of this remarkable woman now stands at Milepost 189.9 along Virginia’s Blue Ridge Parkway.

Karen attended Guilford College and holds a BA in English from Salem College. During her last semester at Salem, she became a freelance writer for a local magazine. After graduation, Karen worked as a newspaper reporter, photographer, and editor. Her stories and poetry have been featured in national magazines and literary journals.

In September 1996, Cumberland Island blasted onto the national news scene when it was revealed that John Kennedy, Jr., and Carolyn Bessette were married on the island in the First African Baptist Church—a simple one-room frame structure with eight handmade pews. When the flotilla of writers and photographers arrived on the island a few days later only to find themselves itching, sweating, and swatting at pestiferous gnats and bloodthirsty mosquitoes, they wondered why such a worldly and sophisticated couple had chosen such a tick-infested spot. In Cumberland Island, Charles Seabrook uses his talent as an award-winning environmental writer to describe the island’s natural bounty and to tell its long and intriguing history. You’ll meet Catherine “Caty” Greene Miller, the widow of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene and the woman who inspired Eli Whitney to invent the cotton gin. There’s Miss Lucy Ferguson, considered by many to be the toughest and orneriest of all the strong women who inhabited the island, reigning over it during the 1960s and ’70s. The present-day generation is represented by Janet “GoGo” Ferguson, Miss Lucy’s granddaughter, who made the arrangements for the Kennedy and Bessette wedding and crafted their wedding rings as well. Today, the island serves as a lightning rod for controversy. Although the island is currently under the purview of the National Park Service, some descendants still reside on the island. The dispute over the sale of land by cash-strapped landowners to commercial developers creates as much heated debate as the discussion of how the Park Service should balance the management of a wilderness area with the privileges accorded the residents. Included in these two debates are the questions of whether the island’s signature wild-horse herd should be dispersed because of the environmental damage it wreaks and whether the historic mansions that still pepper the island be allowed to crumble to ruin for the sake of wilderness preservation.

Charles Seabrook has been a long-time environmental writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His popular weekly column called "Wild Georgia" was the victim of cutbacks. However, in 2008, the paper reinstituted the column due to reader demand. In 1981, Seabrook was one of the first reporters in the world to write about a mysterious and burgeoning disease that would soon be known as AIDS. In addition, he has written extensively on global warming, air and water pollution, and songbird decline. He has won awards from the National Wildlife Federation, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and various press organizations. His newspaper series about Georgia’s mining industry won the Investigative Reporters and Editors “Best Story of the Year” award in 1994. In 2001, the state of Georgia gave him the R. L. "Rock" Howard Award, its highest conservation award. He lives in Decatur, Georgia.

During the first half of the 19th century, as many as 100,000 Native Americans were relocated west of the Mississippi River from their homelands in the East. The best known of these forced emigrations was the Cherokee Removal of 1838. Christened Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu—literally “the Trail Where They Cried”—by the Cherokees, it is remembered today as the Trail of Tears. In Voices from the Trail of Tears, editor Vicki Rozema re-creates this tragic period in American history by letting eyewitnesses speak for themselves. Using newspaper articles and editorials, journal excerpts, correspondence, and official documents, she presents a comprehensive overview of the Trail of Tears—the events leading to the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokees’ conflicting attitudes toward removal, life in the emigrant camps, the routes westward by land and water, the rampant deaths in camp and along the trail, the experiences of the United States military and of the missionaries and physicians attending the Cherokees, and the difficulties faced by the tribe in the West. “O what a year it has been!” wrote one witness accompanying a detachment westward in December 1838. “O what a sweeping wind has gone over, and carried its thousands into the grave.” This book will lead readers to both rethink American history and celebrate the spirit of those who survived.

Vicki Rozema is the author of Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East and Voices from the Trail of Tears. Also an acclaimed photographer, she is a history professor at the University of Tennessee. The first edition of Footsteps of the Cherokees received an Award of Merit from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1996. Her honors include the 2014 McClung Award for an article that appeared in the 2013 Journal of East Tennessee History and the Native American Eagle Award for her writings on the Cherokee.

"This work, like Cherokee Voices, is a compilation of letters, newspaper editorials, journal excerpts, church records, and military documents, written by a diverse group of Cherokees and Euroamericans. As the title suggests, Voices from the Trail of Tears is a moving account of the forced removal of thousands of Cherokees in the 1830s; Rozema does a remarkable job of 're-creating this tragic period in American history by letting eyewitnesses speak for themselves.'" - Ginny Carney Studies in American Indian Literature

Over its fifty-year existence, John F. Blair, Publisher, was known for its Southern folklore—its tales of ghosts, goblins, ghouls, spirits, witches, devils, phantoms, haints, boogers, boo-daddies, plat-eyes, demons, apparitions, Doppelgangers, banshees, disappearing hitchhikers, pirate legends, ghost dogs, dog ghosts, dogs who see ghosts . . . In recognition of its golden anniversary, the company published this volume of twenty stories culled from its folklore collections. Readers will likely be impressed at the timeless quality of the tales, some of which have never been out of print since they first appeared in the 1960s. And you may be surprised to learn of their broad appeal, the collections having sold a total of over six hundred thousand copies. Some of these tales are now being enjoyed by their third generation of readers.

If you don’t know what a coffin baby is, read “Milk and Candy” by Randy Russell and Janet Barnett. If you’d like to meet a real-life pirate who’d make a better Hollywood character than any swashbuckler yet seen on celluloid, you’ll enjoy “Stede Bonnet” by Nancy Roberts. If there’s a place in your heart for a pair of lifesaving little dogs who’ve scampered on the same South Carolina beach for over a hundred years, try “Pawleys Island Terriers” by Elizabeth Robertson Huntsinger. If you prefer folklore with a historical touch, you can learn about Theodosia Burr Alston in Charles Harry Whedbee’s “Lady in Distress” and about Francis Marion in Daniel W. Barefoot’s “Ghostly Legacy of the Swamp Fox.” The folklorists included here claim stomping grounds from the high peaks and mountain hollows to the flatlands to the swamps to the barrier islands to the briny deep. What they share is a love of their subject and the ability to bring it to life on the page.

This anthology was compiled by the staff of John F. Blair, Publisher.

In 1963, Judge Charles Whedbee was asked to substitute on a Greenville, NC, morning show called Carolina Today while one of the program's regulars was in the hospital. Whedbee took the opportunity to tell some of the Outer Banks stories he'd heard during his many summers at Nags Head. The station received such a volume of mail in praise of his tale-telling that he was invited to remain even after the man he was substituting for returned to the air. "He had a way of telling a story that really captured me," said one of the program's co-hosts. "Whether he was talking about a sunset, a ghost, or a shipwreck, I was there, living every minute of it." Word traveled as far as Winston-Salem, where John F. Blair proposed to Whedbee that he compile his stories in book form. Whedbee welcomed the challenge, though his expectations for the manuscript that became Legends of the Outer Banks and Tar Heel Tidewater were modest. "I wrote it out of a love for this region and the people whom I'd known all my life," he said. "I didn't think it would sell a hundred copies." From the very first sentence of the foreword, Whedbee stamped the collection with his inimitable style: "You are handed herewith a small pod or school of legends about various portions of that magical region known as the Outer Banks of North Carolina as well as stories from other sections of the broad bays, sounds, and estuaries that make up tidewater Tarheelia." The Lost Colony, Indians, Blackbeard, an albino porpoise that guided ships into harbor—the tales in that volume form the core of Outer Banks folklore. Whedbee liked to tell people that his stories were of three kinds: those he knew to be true, those he believed to be true, and those he fabricated. But despite much prodding, he never revealed which were which.

Legends of the Outer Banks went through three printings in 1966, its first year. Demand for Whedbee's tales and the author's supply of good material were such that further volumes were inevitable. The Flaming Ship of Ocracoke & Other Tales of the Outer Banks was published in 1971, Outer Banks Mysteries & Seaside Stories in 1978, Outer Banks Tales to Remember in 1985, and Blackbeard's Cup and Stories of the Outer Banks in 1989. In 2004, the staff of John F. Blair, Publisher, collected 13 of Judge Whedbee's finest stories for Pirates, Ghosts, and Coastal Lore. If this is your introduction to Charles Harry Whedbee, you'll soon understand his love for the people and the history of the Outer Banks.

For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest. Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

When you think of early Texas history, you think of freedom fighters at the Alamo and rugged cowboys riding the plains. You usually don’t think too much about slavery in the Lone Star State. Although slavery existed in Texas only from the second decade of the 19th century to the close of the Civil War, the majority of early settlers came to Texas from other Southern states. When they moved westward, they brought their slaves with them. When the Federal Writers’ Project sent interviewers across Texas to find former slaves and document what their lives were like during slavery, they filed over 590 slave narratives, the largest collection of any state. The 28 selections in I Was Born in Slavery show that Texas slaves had their own distinctive voices, often colored by their Western culture. Lu Lee, who lived in what was then Cook County, describes seeing Indians pass by the house every day, observing droves of wild horses, and watching wolves grab “a big, good-sized calf in small time.” James Cape, interviewed in Fort Worth, speaks affectionately about his favorite horse and tells about working as a cowhand for a cattle rustler before escaping to Missouri to work on Jesse James’s farm. Sam Jones Washington, a slave on a ranch along the Colorado River, describes how he once diverted a cattle stampede. He ends his description by saying that “if them cattle stamp you to death, Gabriel sho’ blow the horn for you then!” Along with descriptions of the frontier, the words of these slaves provide poignant insights into what it was like to live as a slave in this area. Through their voices, we are given a moving glimpse into an important part of American history.

Andrew Waters is a writer and former editor. A native North Carolinian, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Creative Writing and received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the executive director of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy in Spartanburg, SC.

From 1936 to 1938, the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), a part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, hired writers, editors, and researchers to interview as many former slaves as they could find and document their lives during slavery. More than 2,000 former slaves in 17 states were interviewed. With Weren’t No Good Times, John F. Blair, Publisher, continues its Real Voices, Real History™ series with selections from 46 of the 125 interviews now archived in the Library of Congress that were earmarked as interviews with Alabama slaves. Also included is an excerpt from Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom, a memoir written by Louis Hughes. This selection reveals a different aspect of the Alabama slavery experience, because Hughes was hired out by his master to work at the Confederate salt works during the Civil War. Alabama was a frontier state and from the beginning, its economy was built on cotton and slavery. That its laws were fashioned to accommodate both becomes obvious when related through the experiences of Alabama’s slaves. A year after it obtained statehood, Alabama had a slave population of 41,879, as compared to 85,451 whites and 571 free blacks. By 1860, the slave population had swelled to 435,080, while there were 536,271 whites and 2,690 free blacks. When emancipation came to the slaves, Alabama’s slave owners lost an estimated $200 million of capital. These narratives will help readers understand slavery by hearing the voices of the people who lived it.

Horace Randall Williams describes himself as “among the last of Alabamians - black or white - who have memories of picking cotton by hand not for a few minutes to see how it felt but because I needed the few dollars I would get for a day’s hard labor under a hot sun,” an experience he says helped him recognize the cadences and dialect in the slave narratives. An Alabama native, he has researched and written extensively about civil rights, segregation, and slavery during three decades as a reporter, writer, editor, and publisher of newspapers, magazines, and books. He was the founder and, for many years, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Klanwatch Project. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of NewSouth Books in Montgomery, Alabama. He recently authored 100 Things You Need to Know about Alabama.

"For a century and a half, these stories and the truths they disclose have been hidden from view. They are far too important to stay neglected and ignored. Williams has resurrected the last generation of America’s slaves and allowed them to speak in their own voices." - Elizabeth Breau Foreword Review

Few people realize that Native Americans were enslaved right alongside the African Americans in this country. Fewer still realize that many Native Americans owned African Americans and Native Americans from other tribes. Recently, historians have determined that of the 2,193 interviews with former slaves that were collected by the Federal Writers’ Project, 12 percent contain some reference to the interviewees’ being related to or descended from Native Americans. In addition, many of the interviewees make references to their Native American owners. In Black Indian Slave Narratives, Patrick Minges offers the most absorbing of these firsthand testimonies about African American and Native American relationships in the 19th century. The selections include an interview with Felix Lindsey, who was born in Kentucky of Mvskoke/African heritage and who served as one of the buffalo soldiers who rounded up Geronimo. Chaney Mack, whose father was a “full-blood African” from Liberia and whose mother was a “pure-blood Indian,” gives an in-depth look at both sides of her cultural heritage, including her mother’s visions based on the “night the stars fell” over Alabama. There are stories of Native Americans taken by “nigger stealers,” who found themselves placed on slave-auction blocks alongside their African counterparts. The narratives in this collection provide insight into the lives of people who lived in complex and dynamically interconnected cultures. The interviews also offer historical details of capture and enslavement, life in the Old South and the Old West, Indian removal, and slavery in the Indian territory.

So asks Rose Williams of Bell County, Texas, whose long-ago forced cohabitation remains as bitter at age 90 as when she was “just a ingnoramus chile” of 16. In all her years after freedom, she never had any desire to marry. Firsthand accounts of female slaves are few. The best-known narratives of slavery are those of Frederick Douglass and other men. Even the photos most people have seen are of male slaves chained and beaten. What we know of the lives of female slaves comes mainly from the fiction of authors like Toni Morrison and movies like Gone With the Wind. Far More Terrible for Women seeks to broaden the discussion by presenting 27 narratives of female ex-slaves. Editor Patrick Minges combed the WPA interviews of the 1930s for those of women, selecting a range of stories that give a taste of the unique challenges, complexities, and cruelties that were the lot of females under the “peculiar institution.”

Patrick Minges worked for 17 years for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He teaches in Stokes County Schools and at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem. He is also the author of Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetowah Society and the Defining of a People, 1855-1867 and Black Indian Slave Narratives.

It was 1934 and jobs were scarce. With so few prospects, Frank Davis, age 18, joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. For the next two years he would live and work in Western North Carolina. He, along with hundreds of other young men his age, worked to build hiking trails, roads, overlooks, and walls through the Smoky Mountain National Park. Those were the best and most important days of his life, a time when he matured, learned a trade, and met some of the finest people he has ever known. Relive those days of the Great Depression in these pages where Frank has recorded in vivid detail the experiences of those times—some harrying, many hilariously funny, but all memorable and exciting.

Frank Davis was born and reared in Mebane, North Carolina. After leaving the CCC, he married a young girl he met while there and had a child. He later moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he got a job at the U.S. Naval Air Rework Facility. He retired from their Production Engineering Department in 1975.

The Crooked Road is a 253-mile stretch of highway in southwestern Virginia. This remote area, which is one of the places that gave birth to American music, has been a musical hotbed for generations. The route includes the Ralph Stanley Museum, the Carter Family Fold, the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance Museum, the Blue Ridge Music Center, the Rex Theater, the Floyd Country Store, and the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum. Covering the 10 counties through which the road passes, this guide provides information about the area’s musical attractions as well as opportunities to enjoy local crafts, outdoor recreation, lodging, and dining. Music lovers will also have the chance to take a piece of the Crooked Road home with them, thanks to the pair of CDs containing 53 examples of the old-time, bluegrass, Piedmont blues, Anglo-American ballads, and Appalachian gospel music that made the area famous.

Joe Wilson was a music historian, folklorist, and chairman of the National Council for the Traditional Arts. Raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains, he learned ballads from his mother, guitar from his uncle, and “Jack” tales from a neighbor. He also heard his great-aunt, known to early radio audiences as “Carolina Sally,” play banjo on his back porch. He has produced 41 large-scale music festivals in 11 states, and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Crooked Road. In 2001 he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In December 1606, three ships carrying 144 passengers and crew sailed from London bound for a land that had already claimed more than its share of English lives. In May of the following year, little more than 100 men would disembark to settle on a small peninsula in the James River. Eight months later, only 38 men were still alive in the fort they had named Jamestown. Jamestown is well known as the first permanent English settlement in the New World; largely unknown is how fragile that permanence was. Most Americans have a general awareness of the dangers faced on any frontier, but not the particular hardships that confronted the Jamestown colonists—starvation, disease, conspiracy, incompetent leaders, and, of course, intermittent war with the neighboring Native Americans. This volume collects contemporary accounts of the first successful colony the first thirteen United States. The earliest text dates from 1605, two years before the first landing; the last describes events up to 1614, when the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe secured a brief measure of peace for the beleaguered colony. Most of the accounts were written by the colonists themselves; others reflect the perceptions and expectations of investors and observers back in England, while two reveal the keen and hostile interest taken in the colony by England’s chief rival, Spain. Several of them were written for widespread publication; others were either private letters or reports meant only for certain audiences. These narratives take the reader from the London stage to Powhatan’s lodge, from the halls of royal power to the derelict hovels of the Starving Time.They show the modern reader what an adventure the founding of English America was—the desperate battles and fraught negotiations with Powhatan, the political intrigues in Europe and Virginia, the shipwreck that inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the discoveries that thrilled the colonists, the discoveries that broke their hearts. Ed Southern, a graduate of Wake Forest University, is a descendant of John Southern, who arrived in Jamestown in 1619.

Ed Southern was a Wake Forest senior studying in London when he walked into the 200-year-old bookshop Hatchard’s and realized how excited the possibilities presented by shelves full of books made him. After graduation, he worked at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Hanging around after he finished setting up for lectures, concerts, performances, and classes gave him an excellent postgraduate education in the liberal arts, which came in handy later when he dropped out of graduate school. He went to work for one of the major bookselling chains and was a member of the training team sent to open the company’s first store in London, a massive four-story media emporium on Oxford Street. It was a bit like coming full circle, but not quite. A year later, he left the bookstore and went to work for John F. Blair, Publisher, as the sales director. He presently serves as the executive director of the North Carolina Writers Network.

Half a century after the publication of The Lonely Doll, Dare Wright remains a subject of fascination. A strikingly attractive woman-child—a model and fashion photographer who always saw the world through the eyes of a girl—she was the author of nineteen children’s books that are still remembered fondly by a legion of fans. Ocracoke in the Fifties, now in print for the first time, is Dare Wright’s only book for adults. First and foremost, it is a tribute to one of Dare’s favorite places. It is also a time capsule of a unique island culture just past the midpoint of the twentieth century. And surprisingly, it is a testament to the timelessness of Ocracoke—which would please Dare immensely. Ocracoke has seen its share of changes, to be sure, but readers will have no trouble recognizing the durable little island off the North Carolina coast. The Ocracoke Lighthouse, the British Cemetery, the pony herd, the white picket fences, the legend of Blackbeard, the weathered fishermen, the barefoot children—seldom have Ocracoke’s landmarks, legends, and people been portrayed so memorably as by Dare Wright’s camera and pen. Dare Wright died in 2001. Ocracoke in the Fifties will bring a twinge of nostalgia to those who loved her children’s books and introduce her to a new generation of readers.

Dare Wright (1914–2001) was born in Canada on December 3, 1914. Her parents' marriage dissolved before Dare turned three, and Dare's father left with her older brother, Blaine. The children were not to reunite until they were in their twenties. Dare grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and showed an early creative aptitude. Encouraged by her mother, the artist Edith Stevenson Wright, Dare learned to sketch, paint, write, and sew. It took the catalyst of photography for Dare to later combine these talents into her Lonely Doll book series. Moving to New York in her twenties, Dare modeled for major magazines and had small parts in theatrical productions. A stunning beauty, Dare seemed a natural for show business, but she was never comfortable performing in a public venue. Competition, whether with other actresses for roles, or with her mother as a painter, was too distressing. Instead, Dare found her niche as a photographer, first in the fashion field, and then as a children's book author. In 1941, Dare and her brother Blaine met for the first time since they had been separated as children. Blaine was handsome, witty, and everything Dare could have wished for in a sibling. Blaine introduced Dare to his RAF friend, Philip Sandeman. The two became engaged, but the wedding never transpired.  The 1957 success of Dare's first book, The Lonely Doll, brought her recognition as both an author and photographer. Illustrated with Dare's haunting black-and-white photographs, the seemingly simple text touched both children and their parents.  Almost fifty years later, Dare's nineteen published books continue to delight a new generation of readers.

“One day, I went to the slave market and watched em barter off po’ niggers lak tey was hogs,” said George Lycurgas, as recalled by his son, Edward. “Whole families sold together, and some was split—mother gone to one marster and father and children gone to others. They’d bring a slave out on the platform and open his mouth, pound his chest, make him harden his muscles so the buyer could see what he was gittin’.” The ex-slaves in No Man’s Yoke on My Shoulders speak of a Florida that no longer exists and can barely be imagined today. Now the fourth most populous state in the country, Florida has more than 100 times the people it did in 1860, just before the Civil War. And it was only 40 years removed from Spanish rule. In the 1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project dispatched interviewers to record the recollections of former slaves, many in their 80s or 90s. Only one percent of the 2,000-plus transcripts collected in the Library of Congress told the stories of people who had experienced bondage in Florida. That makes the narratives of former Florida slaves in this volume doubly precious. Readers will get a glimpse into the lives of these rare survivors as they told their stories at the height of the Great Depression, a time many found little better than the slave days.

Horace Randall Williams describes himself as “among the last of Alabamians—black or white—who have memories of picking cotton by hand not for a few minutes to see how it felt but because I needed the few dollars I would get for a day’s hard labor under a hot sun.” He was the founder and for many years the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Klanwatch Project. He also edited Weren’t No Good Times: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Alabama.

Elizabeth Huntsinger, the author of two popular Low Country ghost-story collections, returns with a third volume of 18 stories. In this collection, she moves beyond local haints and tells about eerie events and unsolved mysteries from the area. Included are stories about a treasure buried along the Sampit River during the Civil War; the pirate Drunken Jack; Tom Yawkey and his beloved Cat Island; the mysterious fire that destroyed Kensington Park; the Pawleys Island Pavilion; George Trenholm and the lost money from the Confederate treasury; and the Sea View Inn on Pawleys Island. A tired, hungry slave woman, upset at being denied her supper one night, places a curse on her plantation that lasts a hundred years. At Magnolia Beach, a mermaid trapped in a bathing house gazes fervently at her storm ball and calls forth a hurricane that sets her free—and kills most members of the family that held her captive. In 1953, the lovely Fiddler’s Green washes up high and dry on the southern end of Pawleys Island. The two brothers who buy her for salvage leave the scene for only thirty minutes—just long enough to find a body hanging from the mast when they return. Actors at Georgetown’s Strand Theatre start to question their sanity one night after a performance. But then Granny Ghostbuster herself arrives to confirm the ghostly presences they feel. Popular folklorist, storyteller, and tour guide Elizabeth Huntsinger is at her best in this collection of nineteen tales from that most mysterious and haunted of places, Georgetown County.

The Triangle is consistently rated one of the best places in the nation to live and work. Its rapidly growing population has generated a need for housing, shopping centers, and infrastructure—and for recreational facilities. Trails of the Triangle describes over 400 trails within a 50-mile radius of the Triangle, whether on federal, state, city/county, or private property. Trails range in distance from a few yards, such as the 92-yard Honeysuckle Lane Trail in Fuquay-Varina to the 50-mile Falls Lake Trail. There are residential trails such as Shelley Lake Trail, which is so popular that it has a speed limit of 10 miles per hour and a centerline to separate traffic. There are trails in remote forests, such as the Summit Loop Trail, where you may not see another person. You can find trails for equestrians, in-line skaters, cyclists, and even the differently abled.

Before his death, Allen de Hart hiked more than 53,000 miles in 46 states and 18 foreign countries. He is the author of nine books and trail guides for the Carolinas and other Southeastern states. He built his first trail with his two brothers to create a shortcut from their family’s farm to the local school. After earning a master’s degree from the University of Virginia and serving nine years in the United States Army, de Hart moved with his wife to Louisburg, NC, where he taught history and served as director of public affairs for Louisburg College.

The presence of the once-powerful Cherokees is still evident throughout the southeastern United States in names like Chickamauga, Hiwassee, Chattahoochee, Unicoi, Oconee, and Tuscaloosa. For those interested in learning more about the rich heritage of the Cherokees by visiting their historic sites, the second edition of Vicki Rozema’s Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation is an excellent guide.

In the early 1800s, the Cherokee Nation reached from western North Carolina to middle Tennessee, and south to northern Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Then, in 1838, thousands of Cherokees were forced to leave their farmlands, homes, and sacred sites during that infamous trek to Oklahoma, the “Trail of Tears.” Rozema traveled over 4,000 miles and spent four years and close to 2,500 hours visiting, researching, and photographing the sites of the Cherokee Nation. Footsteps of the Cherokees is a guide to these scenic, cultural, and historic locations. The book is divided into two sections. In the overview, Rozema traces the history of the Cherokees from their prehistoric ancestors to their interaction and conflict with white explorers and settlers to stories of the few who remained behind after the forced march west. This information puts the 190 sites listed in the book into historical perspective. The second section focuses on the sites themselves. The sites are divided into nineteen areas named after central locations. The starting locations include Chattanooga, Knoxville and Maryville, Atlanta, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Northeast Georgia, Northwest Alabama, and South Carolina. The coverage of each site includes a discussion of the area’s history, background information, detailed directions, hours of operation, entrance fees, and important phone numbers. The book includes over 200 black-and-white photographs.

Take an afternoon or weekend and travel back in time to the glory days of the Cherokee Nation. Whether in your car or favorite armchair, Footsteps of the Cherokees will take you to the great tribe’s hunting grounds, battlegrounds, sacred lands, homelands, birthplaces, and burial sites.

Vicki Rozema is the author of Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East and Voices from the Trail of Tears and Voices from the Trail of Tears. The first edition of Footsteps of the Cherokees received an Award of Merit from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1996. Also an acclaimed photographer, she is a history professor at the University of Tennessee.

Since the first edition of A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries

Danielle Tarmey was born in the Bahamas and spent her childhood there. When she was eight, her parents moved back to Europe. The daughter of a British father and a French mother, she has lived throughout Europe, including France, England, Italy, and Switzerland. In the United States, she has lived in both California and North Carolina. She earned her master’s degree in education at Salem College.

Joseph Mills was born and raised in Indiana and has lived in several states, including Illinois, New Mexico, Utah, and California. After earning a Ph.D. in literature at the University of California, Davis, he joined the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. In 2017, he received the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence. He has published six books of poetry; many of his poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor's A Writer's Almanac.

On July 11, 1942, the USS North Carolina steamed into Pearl Harbor. She was a magnificent ship—the first in a new class of battleships, simultaneously monstrous and fast. She was two-and-a-half-football-fields long and so wide she could barely pass through the Panama Canal on her journey to Hawaii. At any given time, 2,339 sailors manned the ship—a total of more than 7,000 during the six years she served. As she glided into the ravaged harbor, past the wreckage of sunken American ships, the morale of the men in the surviving Pacific fleet soared. A little over two years earlier, more than 57,000 people had gathered in the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the day she was launched. As she went through her “shakedown” period, she returned repeatedly to that same naval yard for adjustments and modifications. Many New Yorkers, including radio commentator Walter Winchell, often witnessed the ship entering and departing New York Harbor and began calling her the “Showboat.” Although she was an impressive structure, she was more than just a showboat. After coming to Pearl Harbor, she saw action in some 50 battles in almost every campaign in the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Tokyo Bay. In 1960, when the navy announced its intention to scrap the ship, North Carolina citizens, including countless schoolchildren, raised over $330,000 to bring the ship to Wilmington, North Carolina, and preserve her as a state war memorial. In this book, Ramsey tells the story of the battleship through the eyes of the men who served her. After doing research about the ship at the National Archives in 2000, Ramsey spent six days helping the staff of the memorial compile a living-history archive of personal interviews conducted with the surviving crewmembers when they attended the ship's annual reunion. She became fascinated with the stories these men told. For the next few years, she continued talking to the men to flesh out their stories. The result is this narrative about one of the most decorated American battleships in World War II, as seen through the eyes of the young sailors who matured into men while manning this floating fortress. As Ramsey says in her introduction, “Sailors know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story. A fairy tale begins, ‘Once upon a time.’ A sea story starts simply, ‘Now, this is no bullshit.’ This book is a sea story.”

In the early 1960s, Cindy Ramsey was one of thousands of children who raised money to save the battleship North Carolina and bring it to Wilmington, North Carolina. Though her family was poor, her father made sure she and her siblings had money to take to school to help save the ship from becoming scrap. Ramsey grew up in Pender County, north of where the battleship now rests. She graduated with a B.A. in English in 1999 and an M.F.A. in creative writing in 2006, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Ramsey began writing and editing the Pender Post in February 2002, then purchased the newspaper that fall. She sold the newspaper and moved to Columbus, North Carolina, in 2006. She is now retired from the state community college system.

On February 11, 1780, a British army led by General Sir Henry Clinton came ashore on Johns Island, South Carolina. By the end of March, the British had laid siege to Charleston, the most important city south of Philadelphia. By the middle of May, they had taken the city and the American army defending it. On March 15, 1781, that same British army left the field at Guilford Courthouse exhausted, decimated, stripped of supplies and rations, and victorious in name only. Its march away from Guilford Courthouse would end only a few months later at Yorktown, Virginia, where it would surrender. How did this happen? Although historians have debated the causes for centuries, they have often ignored how it felt to live, fight, and survive. What was it like to be British or American, Tory or Whig, regular soldier or militia, partisan, outlaw, or would-be bystander as the two sides (and those who drifted from side to side) went at each other with a fury across the Carolina countryside?

Through the eyewitness accounts of those who fought the battles and skirmishesVoices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas provides the reader with firsthand looks at how it felt. The entries in this volume are taken from first-person narratives by those on the scene, from officers such as Henry Lee and Banastre Tarleton to teenaged scouts such as Thomas Young and James Collins. Some narratives, like Daniel Morgan's report of the Battle of Cowpens, were written immediately or soon after the action; others, like Young's, were written when the boy soldiers had become old men. Some were written (and sometimes embellished) specifically for publication, while others were written as private correspondence or official reports. Some express a great deal of emotion and describe the authors' immediate experiences of war, while others concentrate on logistics, strategy, tactics, and the practical realities of an army battle; some, like Lee's, manage to do both.

The American Revolution in the Carolinas was nasty, brutish, and relatively short, though it must not have felt short to those who lived through it. It moved with a furious swiftness, the center of action shifting from Charleston to Camden, from Charlotte to King's Mountain, and from Cowpens to Guilford Courthouse in a matter of months, weeks, or sometimes days. Accounts that describe what it was actually like at all of these hot spots as well as the events that lead up to the actual fighting are included in this book. Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas gives the reader some idea of what it was like to be part of a war when two states were ripped apart but a nation was made.

Ed Southern was a Wake Forest senior studying in London when he walked into the 200-year-old bookshop Hatchard’s and realized how excited the possibilities presented by shelves full of books made him. After graduation, he worked at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Hanging around after he finished setting up for lectures, concerts, performances, and classes gave him an excellent postgraduate education in the liberal arts, which came in handy later when he dropped out of graduate school. He went to work for one of the major bookselling chains and was a member of the training team sent to open the company’s first store in London, a massive four-story media emporium on Oxford Street. It was a bit like coming full circle, but not quite. A year later, he left the bookstore and went to work for John F. Blair, Publisher, as the sales director. He presently serves as the executive director of the North Carolina Writers Network.

Mile for mile, St. Simons Island—one of Georgia’s Golden Isles—boasts as much history as any community on the East Coast. Originally an Indian hunting ground, it has been occupied or invaded by Spanish missionaries, British settlers, planters and their slaves, the Union army, the United States Navy, and developers and tourists. The seventeen narratives in Voices from St. Simons represent an “oral archaeological dig,” writes editor Stephen Doster. Many of those interviewed are descendants of masters and slaves. Surprisingly, they speak of racial issues with greater compassion than bitterness. But the volume encompasses much more than that. Here, the people of the Golden Isles recall waving farewell to Paul Redfern when his airplane took off from a sandy beach on his ill-fated attempt to outdo Charles Lindbergh. They describe jumping into a fast boat and riding to the rescue of merchant sailors torpedoed by a German U-boat. They tell of playing childhood sports—and dominating the competition—alongside future NFL legend Jim Brown, who was raised on St. Simons. They remember piloting the ship that, due to a helmsman’s error, hit the Sidney Lanier Bridge, causing one of the worst such disasters in American history. “In some respects, the narratives reveal a plot of ground that time forgot,” Doster writes. “They present the reflections of a cross-section of ordinary people who lived during extraordinary times.”

Stephen Doster was born in 1959 in Kingston-Upon-Thames, England, and moved with his parents and four siblings to St. Simons Island, Georgia, in the early 1960s. His ties to the island date to the early 1900s, when his father’s family vacationed there before the construction of a mainland causeway. His grandparents permanently moved to St. Simons in the 1940s, building on the grounds where a Spanish mission once stood. Growing up on the island, Doster remembers the place as a “Mayberry with tides,” where he and neighborhood kids played baseball on the beach, sneaked into a resort hotel pool after football practices, and explored the island’s woods and tidal creeks. His early recollections include seeing navy hurricane hunters fly over the Atlantic in search of storms before the days of satellites, viewing open Indian graves during an archaeological dig, evacuating the island at Hurricane Dora’s approach, and returning to the destruction left in its wake. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1983, Doster headed to Nashville, Tennessee where he has lived and worked since. Though he has been a resident of Nashville for over 20 years, St. Simons has always been close to his heart. In 2002, John F. Blair published his debut novel, Lord Baltimore, about a young man’s journey on the Georgia coast between Savannah and St. Simons. Voices from St. Simons is essentially Doster’s effort to preserve the legacy of the area. For decades, he heard “local residents utter the famous sentiment that someone should have recorded so-and-so’s recollections before she died.” Reading the obituary of a former elementary school teacher inspired him to set up face-to-face and telephone interviews that began his oral archaeological dig. Doster works at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville with his wife, Anne.

Great Waterfalls of North Carolina is an informative guidebook for locating and photographing 65 waterfalls and cascades in the beautiful Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains of North Carolina. The book contains color photographs of each waterfall, along with detailed, easy-to-follow driving directions to the trailheads and hiking or biking directions once you're on the trails. It includes ratings for beauty and trail difficulty and tips for the best photographic locations for every waterfall. This user-friendly guide is packed with information to assist you in exploring the fantastic array of the region's waterfalls.

Author, historian, and photographer Neil Regan is a lifelong resident of North Carolina and a waterfall enthusiast from early childhood. He was born and raised in southeastern North Carolina, where his family has resided since 1734. He is descended from patriots of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Confederate Army, Artillery, and Cavalry. He is a proud graduate of East Carolina University with a BA in history.

Shenandoah—most often translated as "Daughter of the Stars"—is one of the loveliest names in the language. Backroads travelers will find that it fits the Valley perfectly. Most people know the Shenandoah Valley for its Civil War–era history, from Robert E. Lee's capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859 to Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 to the Battle of New Market in 1864. Fewer know that the Winchester area was home to George Washington, explorer Richard Byrd, novelist Willa Cather, and singer Patsy Cline. Or that Thomas Jefferson owned the geologic wonder known as Natural Bridge. Or that the McCormick Farm near Steeles Tavern was the site of a revolutionary breakthrough in agriculture in the early 1800s. The word Shenandoah may have had as many spellings as there are stars in the sky, but the area’s scenic vistas are practically endless. Travelers will know they've reached the Valley when every turn in the road reveals another photoworthy image of stunning mountain views, scenic rolling fields, or quaint country towns and villages. From the picturesque Goshen Pass, to the winding country roads between Lexington and Staunton, to the Mennonite farms around Harrisonburg, to the dramatic river confluence at Harpers Ferry, the Shenandoah Valley has been attracting visitors and inspiring artists, photographers, and writers for more than 200 years. The thirteen tours in this book explore areas of unspoiled countryside and Appalachian landscapes within easy range of metropolitan centers like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Norfolk.

Originally from San Antonio, Andrea Sutcliffe has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a writer, editor, and publications manager in the Washington, DC, area for twenty years. Her writing and editing career began in 1990 as director of the EEI Press in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1996, Andrea Sutcliffe moved to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to devote herself full-time to writing. Andrea’s love of her new home in the mountains of western Virginia, and a desire to learn more about the region’s fascinating history, led to her book, Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads.

Tennessee is famous for more than just Elvis Presley, Davy Crockett, and Jack Daniel’s. The Volunteer State is also home to enough ghosts, haunts, and spirits to make your skin crawl. Christopher K. Coleman’s Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee is a new collection of 28 tales of the supernatural. This compilation explores never-before-published legends that span the entire state, from the mysterious mountains of Appalachia to the haunted banks of the Mississippi River. Those familiar with Tennessee’s most famous apparitions will find new thrills in Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee. Readers may have heard of the Bell Witch, but what of her sister, a vengeful spirit known to the folks on the eastern part of the Highland Rim as the Buckner Witch? What about the phantoms of the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, a restless troupe of ghosts who perform for unwitting audiences? And what about Hampton, the well-dressed butler of Oakslea Place in Jackson? He often greets visitors, but he’s been dead for years. Of course, this collection wouldn’t be complete without a look at the spirits of legends like Elvis Presley and the ghosts of famous music sites like Opryland and Music Row. Readers will find these stories and more in Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee. This new compilation of authentic folklore offers a fresh look at things that go bump in the night in the Volunteer State.

Christopher K. Coleman has written several books devoted to Southern ghost lore, including Ghosts and Haunts of the Civil War, Dixie Spirits, and Strange Tales of the Dark and Bloody Ground. He received his B.A. in history from St. Anselm College and is a member of the Tennessee Folklore Society. He lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

If you didn’t sleep through U.S. history class, you’ve heard of Pickett’s Charge. If you’ve seen the movie Gettysburg, you’re familiar with Little Round Top. If you’ve been to the battlefield, you’ve seen the Wheatfield. But do you know about the ten or so Confederates buried by accident in Gettysburg National Cemetery? Or about the Union general whose embezzling ways kept his bust from being displayed on his brigade’s memorial? Or how that same embezzling general, when asked why he had no monument at Gettysburg, could rightly reply, “Why, hell, the whole battlefield is my monument”? Authors James and Suzanne Gindlesperger have visited Gettysburg an average of five times annually over the past twenty years. So You Think You Know Gettysburg? shows why they find it a place not only of horrible carnage and remarkable bravery but endless fascination. Who, or what, was Penelope? Whose dog is depicted on the Eleventh Pennsylvania Monument, and why? What are the Curious Rocks? Why does Gettysburg have two markers for the battle’s first shot, and why are they in different locations? The plentiful maps, the nearly 200 site descriptions, and the 270-plus color photos in So You Think You Know Gettysburg? will answer questions you didn’t even know you had about America’s greatest battlefield.

James and Suzanne Gindlesperger are the authors of So You Think You Know Gettysburg?, which was the bronze winner in the travel guide category for ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year Award in 2010. James is a “Friend of the Field” at Gettysburg and the author of three books about the Civil War: Escape from Libby Prison, Seed Corn of the Confederacy, and Fire on the Water. Suzanne is the cofounder of Pennwriters, a professional organization of published and aspiring authors. The couple lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

"This is not a book that fits into one slot easily. This is a book wearing many hats . . . defying a quick or easy description. Part guidebook, part trivia quiz, and part history with a series of fine color photos . . . a well-organized, very attractive, fun book . . . " — James Durney, TOCWOC, A Civil War Blog

Thanks to well-known fishing expert Mike Marsh, North Carolinians finally have a definitive guide for the entire state in one handy volume. Fishing North Carolina is the only book that covers the multitude of fishing opportunities in all of the state’s regions: mountains, Piedmont, and coastal plain. Whatever type of fishing you prefer, Fishing North Carolina has something for beginning and advanced fishermen, longtime North Carolinians, newcomers, and tourists alike. This book will tell you where to go, how to get there, what fishing regulations are in effect, the best time to fish, the best way to fish (from boat, dock, or shore), key species at each locale, and the best lures to use. Detailed maps, descriptions of the fishing, and general information about the locations will help you know whether or not to expect snagged lures or an enjoyable fishing experience for the whole family.

Mike Marsh is a full-time, award-winning freelance hunting-and-fishing writer and photographer whose hundreds of features and columns have been published in dozens of major newspapers and magazines, including the Raleigh News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer, North Carolina Sportsman, Wildlife in North Carolina, and North American Fisherman. Marsh currently lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Critically acclaimed New York Times-best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb chronicles the Civil War in the Southern mountains in Ghost Riders, an extraordinary tale of a war fought farm to farm, neighbor to neighbor in the North Carolina mountains, a part of the South that never wanted to leave the Union. Ghost Riders is “a compelling Civil War tale with a chilling twist” (Library Journal), primarily narrated by historical figures Zebulon Vance (colonel of the 26th North Carolina and later Confederate governor of North Carolina) and Malinda Blalock (who disguised herself as a boy and went with her husband when he was forced to enlist in the Confederate army). With few people left to trust, the Blalocks head for high ground to avoid the county militia and soon become hard-riding, deadly outlaws. Rattler, an old mountain root doctor who has the sight, speaks for the present; he fears that the zeal of a local Wake County, Tennessee, Civil War reenactors' group will awaken the restless spirits of the real soldiers still wandering the mountains. Ghost Riders captures the horrors of a war that tore families apart, turned neighbors into enemies, and left the survivors bitter long after the fighting was officially over. This new paperback edition has a foreword by North Carolina Civil War historian Michael Hardy.

Sharyn McCrumb is an award-winning Southern writer best known for her Appalachian Ballad novels, including New York Times bestsellers The Ballad of Frankie Silver, She Walks These Hills, and The Ballad of Tom Dooley. Ghost Riders was the winner of the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature, given by the East Tennessee Historical Society, and the Audie Award for Best Recorded Book. She was a guest author at the National Festival of the Book in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the White House in 2006, and in 2008, the Library of Virginia named her a "Virginia Woman of History" for Achievement in Literature. In 2014, she was awarded the Mary Frances Hobson Prize for Southern Literature by North Carolina's Chowan University. She lives and writes near Roanoke, Virginia.

Award-winning "ghostlorist" Randy Russell admits to being flummoxed by cats. Some cats will give you whisker kisses or sit with you when you're sick. Others will invite you to rub them, then take a swipe at you, claws out. Some might do any of the above, depending on which way the wind is blowing. Visits from departed pets are easily the most common ghost experiences. And cats refuse to be left out of most anything. Ghost Cats of the South reveals that felines' beloved complexity continues well beyond the grave. In this haunting and entertaining volume, readers will meet the following: A cat smelling of chicken soup that saves a pair of street musicians in Kentucky; a face-hungry Mississippi cat that inhabits the seats of a vintage 1956 Chevy Bel Air; a porcelain cat that inspires girls at a North Carolina summer camp to reveal cherished secrets; a South Carolina feline that becomes part of a batch of moonshine; a piano-playing cat that fulfills the Thanksgiving wish of a Georgia grocery-store magnate; a soot-covered Louisiana cat whose fiery mission is to enforce a no-smoking ban; a Virginia cat that must get its owner his glasses before his coffin is sealed. Good ghost cats, bad ghost cats, ghost cats in their many manifestations and moods—you'll meet them all in these twenty-two stories that the cats dragged in.

Randy Russell is the Edgar-nominated author of several books and collections of short stories, and co-authored, with his wife Janet Barnett, two volumes of southern Appalachian folklore and the highly popular Ghost Dogs of the South. Russell presents ghost-lore programs to groups large and small across the South. He and his wife live outside Asheville, North Carolina.

Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook is recipes—recipes from the restaurant, recipes from the families of chef Stephanie Tyson and co-owner Vivian Joiner, recipes that are Southern, plain and simple. In creating the recipes for Sweet Potatoes, Tyson used all of her influences Geechee flavor from Joiner’s father, who was from the Hilton Head area of South Carolina; her mother’s working-woman “out of the can and into the pan” shortcuts; and her training in culinary arts at Baltimore International College and her later work in South Carolina, the Florida Keys, Arizona, and Maryland. Just the names of the recipes in this book are enough to whet one’s appetite: Pimento Cheese Fondue; Sweet Potato, Corn, and Country Ham Risotto; Gullah Shrimp and Crab Pilau; Slow Cooker Chocolate Stout Pot Roast; Down-Home ’Tata Salad; Molasses Dijon Dressing; Sweet Potato Bread Pudding with Pecan Crunch Topping; and many others. Most recipes include a bit of flavorful commentary from the chef, such as this tip for Spicy Greens: “If you are faint of heart (burn), eliminate the red pepper altogether.” Or the brief definition that introduces Crackling Cornbread: “Cracklings are deep-fried crispy skins of various animals—in this case, pork.” Well, Shut My Mouth! is also the history of the two women who started a locally and nationally acclaimed restaurant (Our State, Southern Living, New York Times). As Tyson says in her introduction, “Every part of me is a part of Sweet Potatoes.” In Well, Shut My Mouth! she shares a culinary experience that has been a favorite of Winston-Salem natives and visitors for years. Now, patrons have the tools to re-create the Sweet Potatoes dining experience in their own homes.

Stephanie L. Tyson (right) and her partner and co-owner, Vivian Joiner (left), opened Sweet Potatoes in the Downtown Arts District of Winston-Salem in 2004. Both live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“Everything about this book is correct except the title. Anyone with a taste bud in their mouth should follow these recipes and open their mouth.” - Maya Angelou

“Family stories grow to be bigger than the experiences themselves,” writes Judy Goldman in her memoir, Losing My Sister. “They become home to us, tell us who we are, who we want to be. Over the years, they take on more and more embellishments and adornments until they eclipse the actual memory. They become our past—just as a snapshot will, at first, enhance a memory, then replace it.” As she remembers it now, Goldman’s was an idyllic childhood, charmed even, filled with parental love and sisterly confidences. Growing up in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Judy and her older sister, Brenda, did everything together. Though it was clear from an early age that their personalities were very different (Judy was the “sweet” one, Brenda, the "strong" one), they continued to be fairly inseparable into adulthood. But the love between sisters is complex. Though Judy and Brenda remained close, Goldman recalls struggling to break free of her prescribed role as the agreeable little sister and to assert herself even as she built her own life and started a family. The sisters’ relationship became further strained by the illnesses and deaths of their parents, and later, by the discovery that each had tumors in their breasts—Judy’s benign, Brenda’s malignant. The two sisters came back together shortly before the possibility of permanent loss became very real. In her uniquely lyrical and poignant style, Goldman deftly navigates past events and present emotions, drawing readers in as she explores the joys and sorrows of family, friendship, and sisterhood.

Judy Goldman is the author of two novels, Early Leaving and The Slow Way Back, and two books of poetry. Her work has been published in Real Simple magazine, and in many literary journals—including Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Ohio Review, Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner—as well as in numerous anthologies. Her commentaries have aired on public radio and she teaches at writers’ conferences throughout the country. She received the Fortner Writer and Community Award for "outstanding generosity to other writers and the larger community." She’s also the recipient of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Mary Ruffin Poole Award for First Fiction, the Gerald Cable Poetry Prize, the Roanoke-Chowan Prize for Poetry, the Oscar Arnold Young Prize for Poetry, and the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for Poetry. The Slow Way Back was shortlisted for the Southeastern Independent Bookseller Alliance’s Novel of the Year. Judy lives with her husband in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1994, Bob Garner began doing short features about barbecue for UNC-TV’s statewide public-television magazine program, North Carolina Now. In 1996, he published North Carolina Barbecue: Flavored by Time, taking readers on a delectable journey across the state in search of the best examples of this distinctive North Carolina delicacy. After Garner produced a one-hour television special based on his book, he quickly became known throughout North Carolina as “the barbecue man.” In 2002, he published Bob Garner’s Guide to North Carolina Barbecue, which describes the 100 best barbecue restaurants from the mountains to the sea. Bob Garner’s Book of Barbecue: North Carolina’s Favorite Food preserves the heritage and tradition of a disappearing rural lifestyle while showing how barbecue continues to evolve. Packed full of recipes for barbecue and popular side dishes (above and beyond the traditional hush puppies, slaw, and ’nana pudding); sidebars with useful tips, barbecue-related news, and features; and profiles of past and present influential pit masters and barbecue aficionados, this tome is the definitive guide to anything and everything pertaining to North Carolina’s favorite food.

Television personality, restaurant reviewer, speaker, author, pit master, and connoisseur of North Carolina barbecue, Bob Garner is the author of two previous books about barbecue. He has written extensively for Our State magazine, including “Bob Garner Eats,” a 10-part series on traditional Southern foods. He has appeared on the Food Network’s Paula’s Home Cookin’ featuring Paula Deen, and Food Nation with Bobby Flay; the Travel Channel’s Road Trip; and ABC’s Good Morning America. Garner was executive producer and host of the UNC-TV series Carolina Countryside and has been a featured speaker at the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in New York and the Southern Foodway Alliance’s annual symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. He speaks frequently to a wide variety of audiences across North Carolina. In 2011, Garner joined with Empire Properties in Raleigh, North Carolina, to work with Ed Mitchell at The Pit to promote barbecue heritage; plans include traveling across the state to host heritage dinners and pig pickings, accompanied by live bluegrass music. Garner divides his time between Burlington and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Voices of Cherokee Women is a compelling collection of first-person accounts by Cherokee women. It includes letters, diaries, newspaper articles, oral histories, ancient myths, and accounts by travelers, traders, and missionaries who encountered the Cherokees from the 16th century to the present. Among the stories told by these “voices” are those of Rebecca Neugin being carried as a child on the Trail of Tears; Mary Stapler Ross seeing her beautiful Rose Cottage burned to the ground during the Civil War; Hannah Hicks watching as marauders steal her food and split open her feather beds, scattering the feathers in the wind; and girls at the Cherokee Female Seminary studying the same curriculum as women at Mount Holyoke. Voices of Cherokee Women recounts how Cherokee women went from having equality within the tribe to losing much of their political and economic power in the 19th century to regaining power in the 20th, as Joyce Dugan and Wilma Mankiller became the first female chiefs of the Cherokee Nation. The book’s publication was timed for the commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Trail of Tears.

Carolyn Ross Johnston has a B.A. from Samford University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California–Berkeley. Her previous publications Cherokee Women in Crisis: Removal, The Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907; Sexual Power: Feminism and the Family in America; Jack London: An American Radical; and My Father’s War: Fighting with the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II. A recipient of Woodrow Wilson and Danforth fellowships and a Pulitzer-prize nominee, Johnston teaches at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she is professor of history and American studies and the Elie Wiesel Professor of Humane Letters.

"In her spirited and well-sourced collection, Johnston...unfolds history through the voices of people who remembered terrible events....An academic account that respectfully resurrects long-dead voices from a people who still have a lot to tell us." - Kirkus Reviews"

From 1971 to his retirement in 2011, Woody Durham was the “Voice of the Tar Heels,” the radio play-by-play man for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this autobiography, Woody takes the reader on a nostalgic stroll down memory lane—from his descriptions of a sleepy Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and the days of football legend ChooChoo Justice to the enormous changes in college sports and how they are covered to his dozens of behind-the-scenes stories about the coaches and players he worked with during his tenure. An appendix offers Woody’s thoughts on every football and basketball player he covered who has an honored jersey at UNC.

Adam Lucas grew up dreaming of becoming a Carolina basketball player. A severe lack of both height and talent curtailed that dream, but he discovered another way to get as close as possible to the Tar Heels--writing about Carolina sports. He is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and Tar Heels Today and a columnist on GoHeels.com. He is author of seven books about Carolina basketball. Adam lives in Cary with his wife, Jennifer, and four children.

"Woody Durham is the epitome of a professional broadcaster, who just so happened to also love the Tar Heels as much as he did his craft. He prepared for each game as if it were the national championship and spoke about each player and coach with an enthusiasm that connected them to his listeners in a unique way. Woody helped bring the Tar Heels to life for generations of Carolina fans." Roy Williams

Nearly two million people visit Gettysburg National Military Park annually, but most of those visitors possess only a rudimentary knowledge of the battle and restrict their travel to the well-established tourist routes. Few know the stories behind the monuments that dot the battlefield, but those back stories are often as fascinating as the story of the battle itself. In their award-winning So You Think You Know Gettysburg?, the Gindlespergers had to make difficult decisions when deciding which of the 200 sites out of the 1,300 battlefield monuments to include. At their frequent book signings in Gettysburg, customers were asking them for a second volume so visitors could learn even more about the monuments throughout the park. In So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume Two, the Gindlespergers have expounded on the histories of an additional 200+ park attractions. The area maps and 270+ color photographs make this guide a welcome addition for the park visitor or the armchair traveler.

JAMES AND SUZANNE GINDLESPERGER are members of the Friends of Gettysburg Foundation, the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Civil War Preservation Trust. Suzanne is a cofounder of Pennwriters, a professional organization for published and aspiring authors. James is the author of three previous Civil War books. The couple lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Across the Blue Ridge Mountains stretches a world both charming and complicated.

Jeremy Jones and his wife move into a small house above the creek where his family had settled 200 years prior. He takes a job alongside his former teachers in the local elementary school and sets out on a search to understand how this ancient land has shaped its people—how it shaped him. His search sends him burrowing in the past—hunting buried treasure and POW camps, unearthing Civil War graves and family feuds, exploring gated communities and tourist traps, encountering changed accents and immigrant populations, tracing both Walmart sidewalks and carved-out mountains—and pondering the future. He meshes narrative and myth, geology and genealogy, fiddle tunes and local color in his exploration of the briskly changing and oft-stigmatized world of his native southern Appalachians and particularly the mystical Bearwallow Mountain, a peak suddenly in flux.

While working as a reporter and producer for North Carolina’s public television network, Bob Garner took his “love of good food to work” where he created a weekly program devoted to the state’s barbecue culture. That evolved into several programs about traditional cooking. Over the course of his many years with UNC-TV, Garner established himself as a country-cooking connoisseur and viewers came to love his trademark “mmm-mmm” whenever he tasted a dish that met his standards. In Foods that Make You Say Mmm-mmm, Garner discusses such signature North Carolina dishes as Brunswick stew, livermush, calabash-style fish, Moravian chicken pie, persimmon pudding, fish stew, and scuppernong grapes. Each chapter provides historical background, recipes and preparation tips, and listings of the best venues where the readers can sample for themselves. In addition to the classic dishes, sidebars about favorite brand-name food and beverages, including Krispy Kreme donuts, Texas Pete hot sauce, Cheerwine, and Mt. Olive pickles, are interspersed throughout the book.

Television personality, restaurant reviewer, speaker, author, pit master, and connoisseur of North Carolina barbecue, Bob Garner is the author of two previous books about barbecue. He has written extensively for Our State magazine, including “Bob Garner Eats,” a 10-part series on traditional Southern foods. He has appeared on the Food Network’s Paula’s Home Cookin’ featuring Paula Deen, and Food Nation with Bobby Flay; the Travel Channel’s Road Trip; and ABC’s Good Morning America. Garner was executive producer and host of the UNC-TV series Carolina Countryside and has been a featured speaker at the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in New York and the Southern Foodway Alliance’s annual symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. He speaks frequently to a wide variety of audiences across North Carolina. In 2011, Garner joined with Empire Properties in Raleigh, North Carolina, to work with Ed Mitchell at The Pit to promote barbecue heritage; plans include traveling across the state to host heritage dinners and pig pickings, accompanied by live bluegrass music. Garner divides his time between Burlington and Raleigh, North Carolina.

John F. Blair, Publisher, continues its Real Voices, Real History™ series with Voices from the Outer Banks. This volume presents the actual words of the people who lived the uncommonly rich history of this chain of barrier islands stretching from the Virginia border southward through Cape Lookout. Readers will enjoy contemporary accounts of the first British settlement in North America and the birth of the first English child on American soil. They’ll read 18th-century letters, articles, and poems about the bloody death of Blackbeard, arguably the most famous of all the pirates. They’ll read the news account of the first powered airplane flights in human history. And the editorial that created America’s first national seashore. And the words of family members who once inhabited the nation’s most iconic lighthouse—part of a matched set of four. Topics include “the Graveyard of the Atlantic,” in a nod to the rough waters that over the centuries have claimed hundreds of vessels, and “Torpedo Junction,” site of “the Great American Turkey Shoot,” the latter nickname bestowed by German submariners during World War II. The volume includes first-person accounts of Civil War battles, a freedmen’s colony, hunt clubs that drew the first wealthy tourists, and lifesavers who used horses to pull surfboats to the water and fired lines by cannon to wrecked vessels. Readers will even hear contemporary stories of the Boy Scout troop that rode ponies descended from ancient shipwrecked animals.

Stephen Kirk was an editor at John F. Blair, Publisher, for 27 years. He has a B.A. from St. Lawrence University and an M.F.A. from UNC-Greensboro. A story he wrote while working on his M.F.A. appeared in the Greensboro Review and was subsequently selected by John Updike for reprinting in the Best American Short Stories series. Since then, he has written First in Flight: The Wright Brothers in North Carolina and Scribblers: Stalking the Authors of Appalachia. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

"More often, however, Kirk wisely lets his “Voices” do the talking. The result is a pocket volume which should make old Banks hands feel nostalgic and strangers want to go." - Ben Steelman Star News Online

In the introduction to Soul Food Odyssey, Chef Stephanie Tyson describes her early feelings when people assumed her Sweet Potatoes restaurant was a “soul food” establishment. “Soul food was like the boxer George Foreman,” she says. “He would stand there and go toe-to-toe. It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done, and you’d be on your butt. Southern food, on the other hand, was like Muhammad Ali—a little prettier, and you’d still be on your butt! I wanted Ali. I missed the connection that they were both great fighters. Once I got off my high horse, I wanted to know, from a culinary point of view, how do you make what is essentially castaway food into a ‘cuisine’?” In Soul Food Odyssey, Tyson takes readers along on her journey back to find the food her grandmother called “sumntaeat.” The recipes she shares include how to cook various parts of the pig from “the router to the tooter”; other meat dishes, including everything from stewed turkey wings and pot roast to a Low Country boil; what Tyson calls “stone soul sides,” including crackling cornbread, hoecakes, and, of course, different kinds of greens; soups and stews including oxtail and fish head stew and “Everything in It Vegetable Soup”; and desserts “to sell your soul for.” Along with the recipes come Tyson’s comments, which reflect her biting wit as well as her deep appreciation of the food she has come to embrace.

Stephanie L. Tyson is a creative chef who has turned growing up in the South into the soul of her restaurant, Sweet Potatoes. Born in North Carolina, Tyson spent countless hours dreaming of the bright lights of anywhere else. But once she left to travel and cook around the world, she could not believe what a relief it was to come home again. Trained in culinary arts at Baltimore International College, Chef Tyson opened her award-winning restaurant with her partner, Vivián Joiner, in 2003 in the downtown Arts District of Winston-Salem, where they live.

The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato is based on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from The Republic. In this novel, the Cave is a dank basement bar in the small Southern town of Waterville, overflowing with cheap beer, good blues, and local oddballs. There’s Vera, the tough but tender owner; Pancho, the philosophical piano tuner; Billy Joe, the former rising star back home after a stop in Memphis; and Commie Tom, the exceedingly generous proprietor of the Hammer and Sickle Bookstore. The newest bartender is whip-smart tomboy Josie, who hopped a bus from the Appalachian backwoods on a quest to discover who she is and where she belongs. What she finds is the Cave and the love of a charming regular named Danny. Armed with lessons from mythology and Plato’s philosophy, Josie navigates the ups and downs of first love and begins to understand that something much greater is waiting for her just outside the Cave. With Josie as our brave guide, we are submerged in a rarely explored subculture. Her journey into the Cave and back out is filled with trials and tragedy, but Josie is helped along by her newfound community of large-hearted hard drinkers. The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato is a love letter to the families we build for ourselves and the unexpected ways life can answer the question, "What if?"

KATHY GIUFFRE is a professor and sociologist specializing in social networks, cultural sociology, and Polynesian society. Giuffre was invited to present a TED Talk about her research in 2013. She is the author of a memoir, An Afternoon in Summer: My Year in the South Seas (Awa Press, 2010), as well as two academic books covering her areas of expertise. Giuffre received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. from Harvard University. Currently, she and her family live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she is the A.E. and Ethel Irene Carlton Professor of Social Sciences at Colorado College.

". . . [A] novel of love and life that is humorous and delicate. The regulars at the Cavern Tavern in the small southern town of Waterville, located somewhere in the Appalachian Piedmont, partake of all the quirkiness expected of literary denizens of dive bars in the South . . . Passages drawn from Plato's allegory of the cave and Edith Hamilton's Mythology weave through the story, elevating Josie's struggles to the level of the universal. This is warm, sweet, and inviting, like pie fresh from the oven." — Publishers Weekly

"A young woman living in a college town in the early 1990s learns about life, love, and ancient Greek philosophy in this episodic, often comic tale. With its evenhanded narrator, this low-key novel succinctly evokes the supportive dynamics of the community at its heart." — Kirkus Reviews

• Winner: SIBA Summer 2015 Okra Pick Best Book
• Winner: Seven Sisters Book Award, Fiction
• Long List: Pat Conroy Award for Southern Fiction, Prince of Tides Award in Literary Fiction
• Long List: Crook's Corner Book Prize
• Finalist: Foreword INDIEFAB Book of the Year, Literary Fiction

Boasting more craft breweries than any other state in the South, North Carolina is the state of Southern beer. In 2012, Erik Lars Myers wrote North Carolina Craft Beer & Breweries, which profiled 45 breweries. Since then, the number of breweries has more than tripled to over 140 and is still growing. Now, Myers and his wife, Sarah H. Ficke, have produced an expanded and updated second edition.

As in the first edition, Myers and Ficke relate the story of each brewery, profiling the brewers as well as the establishment’s history and the vision of its founders. They also provide details such as location, contact information, and hours of operation. What one reviewer called “an indispensable regional beer handbook” is back and better than ever, offering the ideal introduction for people learning about craft beer and a great resource for enthusiasts who want to get the most out of their craft beer experience.

Erik Lars Myers is the president of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild and the founder, CEO, and head brewer at Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough, NC. Sarah H. Ficke received her PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an assistant professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. In 2011, she put her academic research skills to work uncovering the history of brewing in the Tar Heel State for the first edition of North Carolina Craft Beer & Breweries. They live in Durham, NC.

"Myers is a tour guide we can trust"—Beer Advocate

"There may be no more devoted and jovial Pied Piper for beer than Erik Lars Myers, and North Carolina is lucky to have him. His barnstorming book is not only a touring essential for the state, but also a perfect reflection and manifestation of his attitude, vision, investment and energy for the craft."—All About Beer Magazine

Nick Wolf is a public research specialist for NorthAm Oil Company, but he likes to think of himself as the company storyteller. Nick, who believes in the old-fashioned integrity of the people who run NorthAm, is sent to scout potential oil exploration/drilling sites to assess the political climate. His latest assignment sends him to Hatteras Island, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Growing up, Nick’s grandmother used to whisper the name of the island “like a hissing curse that shouldn’t be spoken out loud.” Nick’s grandfather was said to have died on Hatteras during World War II, though he was mysteriously claimed as a fallen soldier by both the American and German armies. As soon as he arrives on the island, Nick is the victim of several suspicious accidents and begins receiving cryptic notes that lead him to surprising revelations about his grandfather. In the course of his research for NorthAm, Nick discovers that four families run everything and everyone is somehow connected. Even Julia Royal, the fascinating and frustrating woman who runs the boarding house where Nick is staying, is the granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful patriarch of the four families—Liam Royal, known as The Founder.

This mystery/thriller follows two intriguing storylines. Contemporary politics of the Outer Banks, including the always-controversial question of offshore drilling, interweave with the history of German saboteurs during World War II. The book’s title—The Dark of the Island—is what the old-timers on Hatteras called a moonless night with no stars. It was on these nights that the “mooncussers and wreckers” would raise a false light on the beach luring an unwary ship’s captain to run aground so the locals could row out to the wreck and loot the cargo. In this novel, it’s Nick Wolf’s destiny to discover what is behind the true “dark of the island.”

Philip Gerard is the author of five novels and eight books of nonfiction, including Down the Wild Cape Fear: A River Journey Through the Heart of North Carolina and The Patron Saint of Dreams, winner of the 2012 North American Gold Medal in Essay/Creative Nonfiction from The Independent Publisher.

"Greed, regret, deceit, and betrayals drive the mystery, but Gerard’s addition of a realistic love story and his literary, often emotionally charged, writing make this a worthwhile read." —Foreword Reviews

In this third edition of his classic photography/ hiking guide, Adams showcases his own beautiful color photographs. This complete compendium lists 1,000 waterfalls, and Adams specifically highlights more than 300 of the best waterfalls found in North Carolina with full descriptions, comprehensive directions, and four-color photographs. Since the first edition of Kevin Adams’s North Carolina Waterfalls in 1994, this book has sold almost 65,000 copies. In that time, Adams has established a widespread and well-respected reputation as a photographer, naturalist, writer, and teacher.

From its comprehensive coverage and detailed trail directions, to its helpful photography tips and beauty ratings, the new North Carolina Waterfalls remains the definitive guide to its subject.

In addition to North Carolina Waterfalls, Kevin Adams is the author of seven additional books and their numerous revisions. He has taught nature photography seminars since the early 1990s and leads popular tours in the N.C. mountains to photograph waterfalls. He is the man behind Digital After Dark blog and the free Night Photography News e-newsletter. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina.

"Readers will appreciate Adams’ comprehensive coverage, his concise driving and hiking directions, his helpful photography tips, and his emphasis on stewardship of natural resources. North Carolina Waterfalls remains the definitive guide for its subject and a must-have for nature loving natives and visitors."—Internet Brothers: Meanderthals Hiking Blog

Five thousand years out of the labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love.

Steven Sherrill is a graduate of UNC Charlotte and holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The recipient of a NEA Fellowship for Fiction, he has published four novels and one book of poetry. His debut novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, was published in the UK and translated into eight languages. Neil Gaiman selected it as one of six audio books to launch “Neil Gaiman Presents” for Audible.com. A prolific painter and nascent musician, Sherrill is now a professor of English & Integrative Arts at Penn State Altoona.

" . . . [W]ry, melancholy, beautiful first novel . . . " —The Guardian

"Sherrill's narrative, with its dreamlike pace, shows myth coexisting with reality as naturally as it does in ancient epic." —Publishers Weekly

"Wise and ingenious" —The New York Times

Most Americans have heard of Arlington National Cemetery, yet many of those interred rest in obscurity. This book seeks to honor their memories by telling the stories of 250 people buried here. Many were battlefield heroes, but some survived war to go on to major accomplishments. There are also stories of the original inhabitants of the cemetery, slaves and freedmen who worked on the Lee estate. In addition, the book covers popular sites such as the Tomb of the Unknowns and President Kennedy’s gravesite.

Navigating Arlington can be frustrating for visitors. Searching for a particular section of the cemetery is impractical without a map, and locating a specific grave within a section can lead to expenditure of significant time and energy. To aid visitors, a series of maps presents logical starting points. There is a GPS coordinate for each gravesite, which combines with the cemetery’s smart phone application to make location simple. The description of each site is accompanied by a color photograph.

James Gindlesperger is the author of several books about the Civil War: Escape from Libby Prison, Seed Corn of the Confederacy, and Fire on the Water. He and his wife also co-authored So You Think You Know Gettysburg? and So You Think You Know Antietam?, which were both honored as Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year finalists in the travel category. They live in Johnstown, PA.

" . . . James Gindlesperger offers a beautiful tribute . . . Arlington: A Color Guide to America’s Most Famous Cemetery is a must read for anyone interested in Arlington National Cemetery and the intriguing stories of some who are interred there." -David D. Haught, Military Review

In the tradition of The Stranger and The Old Man and the Sea, this masterful novella by critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith explores the human spirit and its capacity for faith and forgiveness in an imperfect world and begs the question: how do you survive when hope is lost? Jon and Estelle walk the picturesque Paris streets but are living through the cruelest of realities: the disappearance of their nine-year-old daughter, Jennifer, abducted from the Musee d’Orsay during a class field trip. Jon spends his days slugging through bus terminals and metro halls, posting flyers of his daughter, while Estelle has become a recluse, unwilling to leave the apartment in case the telephone rings. Their relationship suffers as the passing time chips away at the hope of Jennifer’s return. Then, a free-spirited artist enters their lives as unexpectedly as Jennifer has left it, luring Jon down a reckless path as he searches desperately for courage in the smallest signs. If their daughter is ever returned to them, will Jon and Estelle both be there to welcome her home?

Although legal spirits in the Tar Heel state only go back about ten years, making liquor in North Carolina is not new. Wilkes County, which was once dubbed the “Moonshine Capital of the World,” was the leading producer of illegal liquor for decades. In 1965, Tom Wolfe’s article in Esquire—“The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!”—made the area nationally famous.

Today descendants of famous moonshiners are now respectable craft distillers carrying on the family tradition—people like Brian Call, the master distiller at Call Family Distillers, who is descended from Reverend Daniel Call, who sold his still seven generations ago to burgeoning entrepreneur Jack Daniels. Brian is the son of the legendary Willie Clay “The Uncatchable” Call, who hung around with Junior Johnson and whose favorite car—a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker fitted with toggle switches that kill the brake lights, is on display at the distillery today. Today, the Calls make a 101-proof sour mash moonshine as well as strawberry, cherry, and apple pie varieties.

In Still & Barrel, Trump traces the history of manufacturing moonshine whiskey, gin, vodka, and rum in the state all the way to today’s boom from the artisan movement. The book also serves as a guide so you can visit the almost 50 distilleries that are now in business. The state’s distillers are not just making moonshine. Their wares include rum—from sorghum and molasses—aged red-wheat organic whiskey and vodka infused with the mysterious Tobago pepper. The information about the distillers and their products is surrounded by history and compelling stories about people and their passion.

A lifelong newspaper reporter & editor in NC, Trump received an MFA in narrative nonfiction from Goucher College. His thesis, which told the stories and profiles of North Carolina’s craft distilleries, evolved into a regular Huffington Post/i> blog focused on the subject. That blog was the impetus for Still & Barrel.

This richly illustrated book tells the story of the successful collaboration of Jacques and Juliana Royster Busbee in the creation of a remarkable folkcraft enterprise called Jugtown. This improbable venture, founded in a most unlikely setting, has left its indelible mark on a remote Southern community.

Fully illustrated with numerous black-and-white and color photographs of the place, the people who made pottery there, and the pottery produced by them, the book tells how the Busbees convinced a few of rural Moore County’s old-time utilitarian potters to make new-fangled wares for them to sell in Juliana’s Greenwich Village tea room and shop. Following New Yorkers’ wild acceptance of their primitive-looking and alluring pottery offerings, the Busbees built their own workshop in rural Moore County and called it Jugtown. Today, nearly one hundred potters make and sell their wares within a few miles of Jugtown—all because a hundred years ago, the Busbees and their Jugtown potters found a new way to make old jugs.

Stephen C. Compton is an independent scholar and an avid collector of historic, traditional North Carolina pottery. Steve has written numerous articles and books about the state’s pottery. Widely recognized for his North Carolina pottery expertise, the author is frequently called upon as a lecturer and exhibit consultant and curator. He has served as president of the North Carolina Pottery Center, a museum and educational center located in Seagrove, North Carolina, and is a founding organizer, and former president, of the North Carolina Pottery Collectors’ Guild.

Since its creation in 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has become the most heavily visited of all our national parks, with yearly visitation sometimes surpassing 10 million people. As the national park system celebrated its centennial in 2016, Ben Anderson decided to explore and closely observe, across the seasons, as much of the nation’s most popular national park as practicable during the year. On the three or four hikes he took each month, he revisited a number of trails familiar to him from previous excursions as a Smokies backcountry volunteer for more than 20 years.

To many, the Smokies are among the loveliest and most interesting mountains anywhere, favored by a remarkable biodiversity. Anderson offers observations on natural and human history, mountain culture, geography, geology, flora and fauna. The book also deftly blends the personal with the universal in a compelling mix of entries from the backcountry. Although this book can be used as a helpful trail guide, it also provides a fresh look and an engaging narrative about our most heavily visited national park through the eyes and ears of a lifelong devotee.

Ben Anderson was media relations director at Warren Wilson College from 1997 to 2015. Before that he was assistant professor of mass communications at Florida Southern College. He worked on the staffs of The Asheville Times, the Waynesville Mountaineer, Greensboro News & Record, Athens Banner-Herald, Atlanta Journal, and Athens Daily News. He has been a backcountry volunteer for Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 20 years. He now does marketing and public relations work for the Grove Arcade Public Market Foundation in Asheville. A native of Atlanta, he lives in Asheville, NC.

"For those who want a more strenuous experience, this book will probably spark the desire to lace up the hiking boots and head deep into the backcountry. At the very least, the book should provide a deeper appreciation for the exceptional beauty and biodiversity in this distinctive national treasure." —WNC Woman