Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling

by Tim Tingle, Doc Moore

Storytelling World/Storytelling Magazine Award Winner"I love a book that gives me what it promises, and this one does: fifty real ghost stories, drawn from a variety of sources and told in as many voices, written so as to simulate the language and delivery of a face-to-face performance, and artfully, delightfully done."—Review of Texas Books"Scarcely a page will you turn in this collection of ghost stories in Texas without encountering a disembodied hand or a fang baby—creatures guaranteed to shock the shell of an armadillo. . . . Whether you read the tales out loud or spin them around a campfire, you—and your audience—will be spooked. And you'll never again saunter along a dark, deserted riverbank late at night."—Patti Ross, San Antonio Express-NewsSome humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. Introduced by John O. West and John L. Davis, two of Texas’ most respected folklorists, the stories include tales adapted by European settlers to their new southwestern settings, more historically rooted legends about such early pioneers as Britt Bailey of the Gulf Coast prairie and Josiah Wilbarger of Austin, and those notorious contemporary cautionary tales known as urban legends.With two appendixes addressing selection, learning, and telling of stories as well as sources and scholarship, Texas Ghost Stories is a full-service compendium for tellers, teachers, readers, and collectors. Celebrating both the blending and the diversity of Texan cultures through the timeless stories we love to be scared by, it is a treasury for all Texans and for those who really want to know us.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Tim Tingle, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a popular presenter at storytelling and folklore festivals across America. He was featured at the 2002 National Storytelling Festival. In 2004, he was a Teller-In-Residence at The International Storytelling Center, Jonesborough, Tennessee. Choctaw Chief Gregory Pyle has requested a story by Tingle previous to his Annual State of the Nation Address at the Choctaw Labor Day Gathering--a celebration that attracts over thirty thousand people-- from 2002 to the present.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy Tim Tingle so I was very happy to see a new book of his on our library shelves. Some of the stories are familiar so I was able to hear Tim's voice as I read them. Some were new interpretations. Some were reworked stories. I really like how the stories were connected to specific parts of Texas; this was the first time I've seen a ghost story from Carrollton, Texas.

As a teacher, I liked the extra information at the end of the book on how to storytell. I also appreciate the other books I need to read and storytelling festivals I need to attend.

[Frrobins · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of folktales mostly native to Texas. The authors are very clear that these are folktales and thankfully do not try to pass these off as real, though I do know that their account of the possible murder at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio is based on facts. I enjoyed their version of La Llorona and the ghost at White Rock Lake. They also had an interesting twist on some very familiar legends such as the escaped convict with a hook for a hand who stalks a couple by the lake.

The book is geared to oral folktales, with a lot of information on actually telling the stories, which was not of interest to me. And I know some people enjoy reading things that are geared for speaking for the flavor, I find it annoying. I also didn't think they were that scary, and a bit disappointed they didn't have anything about the Marfa Lights, but then again, Texas is a big state!