Encyclopedia of Urban Legends - Book Review

By Jan Harold Brunvand. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCClio, 2001. xxxiv + 525 pp. Illus. $85.00 (hbk). ISBN 1-57607-076-X

Jan Harold Brunvand holds a unique position in the modern study of contemporary legends. Between 1981 and 1993, he published five books: The Vanishing Hitchhiker, The Choking Doberman, The Mexican Pet, Curses! Broiled Again! and The Baby Train. These have all helped to build the canon of legends now studied by scholars. In creating this series, Brunvand drew in part on his syndicated newspaper column, which provided him not only with a popular audience, but also with a wide variety of informants. It is probably due to Brunvand that the term "urban legend" is so widely used by the lay public, at the expense of "contemporary legend," which seems to have been accepted by most other scholars. The Big Book of Urban Legends, a collection of comic strips based on his books, and the film Urban Legend are only two of the many examples of this usage that might be cited. The ending of his syndicated column and of his first series of books did not signal a loss of interest in the subject on his part. Too Good to be True, a collection of legend texts, and The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story, a collection of essays, have appeared in recent years.

Now they have been followed by the Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. It is a substantial work, around 150,000 words long and containing approximately five hundred items. The main font used is easy to read. The layout is attractive, although the sixty or so illustrations do little more than break up the text. Two-thirds of the entries are devoted to individual legends, the great majority of which Brunvand has dealt with in earlier books. In addition, there are entries on groups of legends such as "Campus Rumor" [sic], "Scares," "Earthquake Stories," "Hilarious Reports," and "Legends of Academe." There are entries covering particular countries, from Argentina to Sweden, and themes such as racism and satanic panics. Brunvand describes different approaches to contemporary legends, including the Freudian, the Fortean, the memetic, the linguistic, and the sociological. There are also discussions of such thorny issues as definition and classification. On this latter topic, the author presents again his classificatory scheme first published in The Baby Train (1993). He modestly admits to the weakness of this system, but rightly claims that no other has been published that challenges it.

Brunvand's writing style has the light touch he has shown in his earlier work and he presents his opinions in an undogmatic fashion. However, two limitations of the book must be noted. First, he seldom quotes actual texts of the legends being discussed. This may be compensated for by using the Encyclopedia alongside his To Good to be True, where the main emphasis is on legend texts. The second weakness is perhaps more serious. For a work including the word "Encyclopedia" in its title, the referencing is rather limited. Brunvand has chosen to provide only a "Selected Bibliography" of about fifty books. Individual entries contain references to works not included in that bibliography, which thus expands the guidance on further reading on offer to those who consult the book. However, referencing is heavily biased towards Brunvand's own earlier works. Of course, Brunvand can justifiably claim that his own books are important sources, but is this weighting in the direction of self-referencing justified? For two-thirds of the entries, Brunvand cites only his own works. Even when he does cite other writers, he does so sparingly. One or two examples will illustrate this point. "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" is one of the most widely discussed of contemporary legends. Brunvand's five references for this legend consist of four of his own books and one article in Western Folklore by Gillian Bennett. If readers do consult these works, they will find many other papers on this topic mentioned, but it could be argued that Brunvand should have referred directly to more of them. When dealing with "The Hook," Brunvand is rather more generous to other writers, listing essays by Linda Deigh, Bengt af Klintberg, and Bill Ellis, as well as two of his own books. However, Ellis is represented only by a paper published in 1987. His later article on this subject, published in Folklore in 1994, is overlooked. The entry on "The Package of Cookies" is one of the many that contain no references other than to Brunvand's own books. Brunvand refers to the fact that short films have been based on this legend but does not cite Veronique CampionVincent's paper "Preaching Tolerance" (Folklore 1995), which discusses these and other films. Her paper might also have been cited in the entry "Film and Urban Legends," but it is not. These reservations apart, the Encyclopedia of Urban Legends may be regarded as a valuable addition to any folklore library.

Sandy Hobbs, University of Paisley

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