Encyclopedia of Urban Legends

A great basic collection of all the "canonical" urban legends, by the man who created - or at least publicized - the modern concept of the urban legend. While pretty much everything here is up on the website (or in his other books), it's still worth getting if you prefer having a paper copy.

Though it would have been a very different book if written a few years later: while it does post-date many of the changes in the *dispersion* of urban legends that the Internet and other modern information technology has created, and effectively discusses those changes, it is not quite up to the mark in the changes in *research* that have occurred - there are quite a few legends in here, for example, that he concludes are purely apocryphal, that a show more simple google search will now bring up primary audiovisual sources for. show less

We all know those stories that are too bizarre to be true--roasted babies, vanishing hitchhikers, scuba divers in trees--but have you heard about the ice man or the bullet baby? This comprehensive and compellingly readable reference work will answer all your urban legend questions, offering alphabetical entries on every aspect of the subject, including descriptions of hundreds of individual legends and their variations, legend themes, and scholarly approaches to the genre. Other entries discuss the relationship of urban legends to literature, film, comic books, music, and many other areas of popular culture. A Booklist Editors' Choice 2001 Reference Book. "Unlike most encyclopedias, this one may be read cover to cover."--Choice show more "Compiled by the foremost authority on this form of contemporary folklore....Superb."--Library Journal show less

Once again, great collection of stories but the author does a lot of back-patting and self-promotion in referring to his other books.

Interesting read. However, the one story in there about the newlyweds is not an urban legend. It is true true true! I even found the clip on YouTube.