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The Jersey Devil, the best-selling book on New Jersey¿s infamous Jersey Devil with over 75,000 in print. Now back in print this new edition of the classic will bring the tale to a whole new generation. In the course of its extraordinary history, the jersey Devil has been exorcised, shot, electrocuted, declared dead, and scoffed at as sheer foolishness ¿ none of which has had any apparent effect on it or the people who continue to see it. This mysterious creature is said to prowl the lonely sand trails and mist-shrouded marshes of the Pine Barrens, and emerge periodically to rampage through the towns and cities of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. The authors point out that while a few appearances have been hoaxes, and other sightings of it have been the result of mass-hysteria, the Jersey Devil has been seen by enough sane, sober, and responsible citizens to keep the possibility of its existence alive today. Many theories about the jersey Devil¿s origin are discussed and carefully reviewed and explained by the authors.… (more)
User reviews
I currently live in New Jersey, but I did not grow up here, and I was not aware of the legend of the Jersey Devil until my adulthood. I mourn that loss, as I loved folklore and mythology of all kinds as a girl (and as a woman), and would have been fascinated by this story. Too often, in my opinion, American children are given the folklore of every nationality and group except their own, and this seems a great shame. In any case, I recently did discover this cryptid from the Euro-American tradition, and have enjoyed a few books on the subject, most notably the picture-book retelling from Trinka Hakes Noble, The Legend of the Jersey Devil. I found The Jersey Devil, first published in 1976, to be immensely informative, giving far more information about the subject than the brief Noble retelling. I also found it engaging and well-written, and plan to track down James F. McCloy and Ray Miller Jr.'s subsequent Phantom of the Pines: More Tales of the Jersey Devil, as well as many of the books listed in the bibliography here. It is fascinating to me, that this creature has been seen by so many people over the years, some of them very prominent citizens - Joseph Bonaparte, Commodore Stephen Decatur, numerous police officers, mayors, other prominent citizens - and that is was seen by large groups of people during the incidents in 1909. I appreciated the inclusion of various illustrations of the Devil, over the years, as well as the detailed maps chronicling his sitings.
Highly recommend to all readers interested in the creatures of folklore and myth in general, or in the folklore of New Jersey and the Middle Atlantic in particular.