The Telltale Lilac Bush: And Other West Virginia Ghost Tales

By: Ruth Ann Musick

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Synopsis: &“Spine-tingling pleasure and entertainment, along with a lot of folklore and history of the particular region&” (Lexington Herald-Leader). West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. And, like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions. Originally, West Virginians told the hundred stories in this collection not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these stories reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people.