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
