Midwest Traditions (1996)

Original Softcover Edition, ISBN 1-883953-16-2
94 pages, 6" x 9"
Regional Folklore/Storytelling/Ghost Stories
$12.95

"A lively compilation"
- Midwest Book Review

Includes tips on how to memorize and tell a successful ghost story.

We all love to be scared (just a little!) by a ghost story told in a safe setting, like an nice program in a library, or sitting around a blazing campfire, or just a quiet evening with friends, listening to the wind howling outside, scratching at the windowpane with dry, twiggy fingers…

This book will help you achieve your mission: to scare your listeners in a way they will enjoy! Here are 18 downright spooky tales from Wisconsin, traditional in form, collected from varied sources and retold by two experienced storytellers.

Together, the two have compiled this collection of pleasantly blood-curdling tales so you can cheerfully pass them on to others. The anthology reflects our universal curiosity about things that go bump in the night. Why do we nod our heads yes, despite our better judgment, when someone utters those fateful words…

Want to hear a good ghost story?

From hex brooms to digging ghosts, from invisible cats to helpful strangers, from mysterious library patrons to self-rocking cradles, from tales of the famous Ridgeway ghost to a magical Christmas story … this compendium is drawn from original field research by the authors and a few older tales gleaned from historical archives.

Elizabeth Matson was always a little spooked by scary stories as a child and avoided them until, as an adult storyteller, she found stories of the odd and unexplainable quietly creeping into her repertoire. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Stuart Stotts, on the other hand, has always relished a nice eerie chilling tale, and continues to pass them on cheerfully to enthralled hordes of schoolchildren and audiences of all ages. He also lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Blue Horse Books is an imprint of Midwest Traditions, Inc., a nonprofit publisher whose titles have won the Benjamin Franklin Award and have been short-listed for the Great Lakes Book Award, Minnesota Book Award, Independent Press Book Award, and others.