"The Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore is a comprehensive, highly readable, encyclopedic dictionary that will appeal to a broad range of students of American literature, history, and cultural studies as well as to general readers, from teenagers to centenarians, who wish to ramble down the highways and byways of our country's immensely varied folk traditions. With more than 750 entries and 228 photographs and line drawings, this is at once a stimulating companion and an authoritative reference to American folklore." "Entries range in length from brief definitions and descriptions of terms and objects, such as animal tale, autoharp, memory painting, and rabbit's foot, to essays, complete with lists of additional reading, on the principal American folklore genres, on the heroes of American folklore, and on the leading writers, poets, composers, musicians, dancers, painters, and other fashioners, transmitters, and scholars of folklore." "From The Alamo, alien abductions, and Gene Autry to Bigfoot, The Blues, and Buffalo Bill, to Yankee Doodle, Yiddishisms, and Zydeco (the name of the music comes from a Cajun song), it's all here - the folklore of different regions, groups, and occupations (Appalachian folklore, Italian American folklore, lumberjack folklore, military folklore, Native American folklore, urban legends); the singers and their songs (Joan Baez, Blue Tail Fly, Burl Ives, Frankie and Johnnie, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, Elvis Presley); the scholars and the collectors (Ruth Benedict, Richard Dorson, John and Alan Lomax, Louise Pound), and so much more - all in one absorbing, immensely valuable reference."--Jacket.