On Brown's 'Ghosts along the Mississippi River'

A lan Brown, professor of English at the University of West Alabama, is the author of numerous books on ghost lore. His works include Ghost Hunters of the South, Haunted Places in the American South, Stories fr om the Haunted South, and Shadows and Cypress: Southern Ghost Stories. In his current work, Brown traces the legends and tales of ghosts up and down the Mississippi River. Brown states that “ghost stories should be enjoyed, and valued, because they preserve the history and values of the people who pass them along” (6). Th is is not a volume of “scary bump in the night” ghost stories that a reader might find in a traditional collection. Brown gathers oral narratives from people he meets in his travels to towns, large and small, in Southern and Northern states that border the Mississippi River. Th e author draws on personal experience from his visits as well as from others who are involved in paranormal research and ghost tours. He includes historical facts about the towns as well as the places, public and private, where he has discovered paranormal activity. Th e firsthand accounts of encounters with ghosts are integrated into the text about the place.