| The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings | 
 enlarge | List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $13.94 (100%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 11 reviews)
Sales Rank: 177694
Category: Book
Author: Jan Harold Brunvand
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0393951693
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.2091732
EAN: 9780393951691
ASIN: 0393951693
Publication Date: February 1989
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The book that launched America's urban legend obsession! The Vanishing Hitchhiker was Professor Brunvand's first popular book on urban legends, and it remains a classic. The culmination of twenty years of collection and research, this book is a must-have for urban legend lovers.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Displaced by Snopes August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 1981, when this book was first published, it was probably a decent collection of the origins of certain urban legends.
For those who do not know what urban legends are, they're just offbeat stories which get told and re-told, in first person as if the teller was either an actual participant in these rather dubious events, or as if s/he KNEW the person to which such an incident happened and can attest to the story's validity; however, urban legends are for the most part, untrue, at least as they are typically recounted by their tellers.
Brunvand spent a lot of time researching the supposed sources of the most popular of these anecdotes, ultimately giving a thumbs-down as to the veracity of most of them. The author seems much more convinced than I am about his success in tracking down the actual origins of these popular tales and ascertaining the truth of each. I know that at least in one instance where I heard one of these stories long before the time at which he cites the first telling... that of "The Waldorf Cake Story".
Still, Brunvand was likely the first person to put such a Herculean effort into documenting and assembling these intriguing sagas and for that I yield him full credit. This is certainly a better book than a subsequent knock-off: The 500 Best Urban Legends Ever!. You can forget about this thrown-together mess - it's pretty bad.
But now we have Snopes.com which has become the all-out authority on urban legends. If you've never visited that website, do so and you'll see what I mean.
Brunvand includes the following popular urban legends in his book: "The Baby in the Oven Story," "The Cucumber in the Disco Pants Story," "The Rodent in the Soft Drink Bottle Story," and the "Car that Runs on Water Story". Oh yeah! And the one about Harley-Davidson Motorcycles selling for 25 bucks apiece but you had to buy 50 of them, (I heard it as surplus Army Jeeps for 50 bucks and you had to buy 50, uncrate your individual jeep, and assemble it -- that was around 1966. A later one I heard was the same deal on airboats.)
If you are totally unapprised of urban legends I can definitely recommend Brunvand's book -- it's well-written and interesting. But it's probably just easier (and more up-to-date) to simply go to Snopes.
Reviewing another review September 12, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this book and found it great. Enough said. However, I'm here mainly to review another review on here.
What kind of idiot is the person who wrote the following:
"Not A Book About Urban Legends, September 16, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
I bought this book thinking that it was a collection of short stories about urban legends. I was partly right. It does have short stories but it also contains a explaination about each and every one including varations of a story."
Did they not even read the title of the book in which is says 'American Urban Legends AND THEIR MEANINGS'??????? Do not listen to this reviewers unfounded whine fest. And why are they complaining in the first place about getting the history of an urban legend anyway? But really they need to read the full title before buying a book.
 Original Text for Urban Legends January 29, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Thanks to the work of Jan Brunvand, the term "urban legend" has become part of the English language lexicon. This is the first book that Brunvand wrote on urban legends, and it contains the classics. You can find out the scoop on rats in KFC, spiders in bananas, the hookman, and (of course) the vanishing hitchhiker. The work shows how legends are oftentimes accepted without critique for being true, and the analysis provides interesting ways for considering why these stories catch on amongst tellers and listeners.
The very best book ever on this subject November 19, 2001
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This author is a rare find in literature of this kind: a genuine, professional folklorist who carefully documents his subject and traces its beginnings. Brumvand is the first author to consult on urban folklore. This book is a keeper, one to read and re-read.
 Not A Book About Urban Legends September 16, 2001
4 out of 33 found this review helpful
I bought this book thinking that it was a collection of short stories about urban legends. I was partly right. It does have short stories but it also contains a explaination about each and every one including varations of a story. I would recommend that unless this is a book report for school or college that you should save your money and try and find it in a used book store or buy it used from a seller on amazon. It is not worth the money to buy it new.
|
|
|
