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978-0-910244-61-9
0-910244-61-8
$13.95 hardcover
5 1/2" x 7 1/2"
153 pages
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Every September, on the first
night of the new moon, there are those who vow they see a flaming ship
sail three times past the coast of Ocracoke. No matter the direction or
velocity of the wind, this fiery vessel moves swiftly toward the
northeast, they say, always accompanied by an eerie wailing sound.
The story of this ship is but
one of the colorful legends intrinsic to the charm of North Carolina's
historic coastland. From the northern tip of the Outer Banks to the
lower end of the sweeping shore line, there are stories to be
found...and to be told with gusto, or awe, or sometimes with horror.
At Nags Head there is a sand
hill where only the unwary go without shoes, and at Beaufort the grave
of a young British naval officer buried upright, standing at attention.
From Shackleford Banks comes the story of a strange woman named Porpoise
Sal and from Wilmington a shadowy tale of a macabre Maundy Thursday
party that had awesome consequences.
This is the second in
Whedbee's collection of five books of coastal folklore. The first, Legends
of the Outer Banks and Tar Heel Tidewater, has experienced close
to two dozen printings. Also available in this series are Outer
Banks Mysteries and Seaside Stories, Blackbeard's
Cup and Stories of the Outer Banks, and Outer
Banks Tales to Remember. His best-loved stories are
collected in the volume Pirates,
Ghosts, and Coastal Lore.
about the author
In 1911, at the age of two months, Charles H. Whedbee made his first
trip to Nags Head in his mother's arms aboard a sailboat. Thus began his
lifelong love affair with the Outer Banks. By the time of his death in
1990, Whedbee had established a reputation as a master storyteller and
an authority on coastal folklore.
In the 1960s, Whedbee hosted
an early-morning television talk show in his hometown of Greenville,
North Carolina. He frequently recounted Outer Banks legends during the
program, and eventually gathered some of the stories into a collection.
In 1966, this collection was published as Legends
of the Outer Banks. The book proved so popular that it
went through three printings in its first year. Decades later, it is
still considered a classic. Many parents who first read these stories as
children are now reading them to their own children.
Whedbee was educated at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also earned his
law degree. For years, he was a district court judge in Greenville. His
five books of Outer Banks folklore have sold around 200,000 copies.
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