Pelican Pouch

Texas abounds with legends of buried treasure and lost mines. The Big Bend country, the Red River region, McMullen County, San Jacinto, Nacogdoches, and San Augustine are all treasure troves of tales of fabulous wealth that still lies just beyond man's reach. These legends are as sizable as the state itself, and J. Frank Dobie, perhaps Texas' greatest historian, devoted years of his life to collecting and cataloging them. The stories in this first volume were originally published in 1924 by the Texas Folklore Society, and represent some of the enduring tales that have embellished the history of the state. Pelican Publishing Company is proud to present this wonderful collection in mass-market paperback form as part of our Pelican Pouch series. Included in this volume are "The Legend of San Saba," "Lost Gold of the Llano Country," "Treasure Chest on the Nueces," and "Lost Mine Near Sabinal," to name only a few. Dobie believed that worthwhile literature about this region had to be derived from an understanding of its life, lore, and history. The legends in this work, as well as those in volume II of this series, were regarded by Dobie as "the most influential in opening the eyes of people to the richness of their own traditions." Legends of Texas indirectly led to the founding of the Texas Folklore Society, the nation's second oldest folklore organization. Pelican has had Legends of Texas Vol. I: Lost Mines and Buried Treasure in print since 1975.

Louisiana is known for its rich, complex cultural heritage, but even in Louisiana, the question "What is a Creole?" is often answered in a number of ways. In Creoles of Louisiana, George Washington Cable knowledgeably addresses this question with precision and aplomb. Originally published in 1884, Creoles of Louisiana builds on earlier explorations of the lives of the white descendants of early French and Spanish immigrants during the transitory post-Civil War period. Cable wrote faithful portrayals of the Creoles, with a pioneering ear for the dialect that earned him an acclaimed place as a leader of the local colorist movement. From the early settlement of Louisiana, to the trials of the War Between the States, to the yellow fever epidemic, and on to "Brighter Skies," the chapters chronicle the Creoles' experience in the Pelican state. New Orleans emerges as a town carved out of the wilderness of the bayou, and together, city and citizens flourished.

Witch? Sorceress? Daughter of Satan? Thief? Saint? Born in 1794, Marie Laveau reigned as, the undisputed Queen of the Voodoos for nearly a century. Her beauty and powers were legendary, and caused her to be the subject of wild gossip throughout her life. She passed on her secrets to a favorite daughter, who helped her dominate the underworld of voodoo in New Orleans.

"Told with warmth, evoking the distinctive aura of a certain class of Southerners and the lure of a city where Walworth descendants may be found today." --Publishers Weekly "The depiction of the antebellum years calls to mind John Jakes' best seller, North and South. Jakes' novel, however, does not depict the human issues of the time as honestly as Pilgrimage does." --Mississippi Magazine "Collier writes of this loving home and its inhabitants with great familiarity and warmth." --Southern Living Based upon the family history of John Walworth and author Louise Wilbourn Collier, Pilgrimage: A Tale of Old Natchez is the bittersweet saga of the family's struggle to survive the devastation of War and-even more difficult-the subsequent cultural and social changes that followed. Tracing the years from 1830 to 1930, this is a generational tale that relates not only the effect the Civil War had upon this family but also upon the historic town of Natchez and its surroundings.The singular focus of this work is The Burn, one of Natchez's most-adored homes. A family estate for more than a century, it serves as the backdrop for the story. From its halls Collier spins her story of the ways in which the homeand its people faced the transformation as told by Aunt Clara, a war-made spinster whose purpose is to maintain the genealogical threads of the family. Louise Wilbourn Collier was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925. Growing up in the Great Depression and moving frequently, Ms. Collier looked to The Burn as a "true home." She married John Stuart Collier in 1953 and raised4 children. Two decades later at the encouragement of her cousin, Margaret Wynn, Collier began to write the stories that would become Pilgrimage. With her book in its third printing and another book in consideration, she resides withher husband in Memphis.

Children of Strangers is the powerful and moving novel of love in a community bound by race and class. Famie is a mulatto girl whose ancestors-free blacks-rivaled the white planters in wealth and culture. But on a Louisiana plantation in the 1920s, she is an outcast, rejected by whites because of her black ancestors and unwilling to associate with the sharecroppers who are descendants of slaves. An illicit love affair with a white landowner leaves her with a son, Joel. Her dream is that Joel will someday become accepted into white society. But in her struggle to transcend race and class, Famie must sacrifice the last links to her past.

The years just before 1880 until about 1885 are considered the "outlaw years," when lawlessness developed a law of its own and planned an empire. Operating along the Natchez Trace, an overland trading and postal-rider route that in places was barely a trail, the outlaws preyed upon the traffic along this line. Their plans were laid in the dives under the bluffs of the river towns--Natchez and Vicksburg and as far south as New Orleans. By far the bloodiest were the Harpes, who were capable of spectacular murders solely to amuse their comrades. Another gang of outlaws under John Murrell even threatened national stability for a time in his plot to steal slaves and organize insurrection in order to disorganize the government and establish his own state. This conspiracy was discovered and defeated by a store clerk who joined the outlaws and lived several perilous months among them. He was almost hung by Murrell's secret partisans among the "respectable" elements. After the overthrow of the "outlaw empire" in 1885, the scene shifted: the frontier advanced; outlaw violence changed its forms, but it never again reached the terrible and magnificent range of the "outlaw years."

At the turn of the century, people outside of New Orleans viewed the city through the eyes of journalist and author George Washington Cable. His writings portrayed a tropical European city nestled on the banks of an American river still teeming with the literary, artistic, and social developments of a late Renaissance. In his own romance with Louisiana, Cable came upon many stories written by its denizens. While Cable assisted some authors in finding places to publish their works, there were many stories he kept for himself. Much of this collection can now be found in “Strange True Stories of Louisiana.” "They are mine by right of discovery," writes Cable. "From various necessities of the case I am sometimes the story-teller, and sometimes, in the reader's interest, have to abridge; but I add no fact and trim naught of value away. Here are no unconfessed 'restorations,' not one. In time, place, circumstance, in every essential feature, I give them as I got them strange stories that truly happened, all partly, some wholly, in Louisiana." “Strange True Stories of Louisiana” is Cable's compilation of seven unusual, factual accounts of life and history in the area. They include tales of two French sisters who made the dangerous trek to the unsettled lands of North Louisiana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Focusing on New Orleans, Cable adds the story of "The 'Haunted House' in Royal Street," which spurs the imaginations of ghost hunters more than a century after its original writing. There is also a diary account, in its first published form, of a Union woman trapped behind the battle lines during the Civil War.

These stories reflect the Creole way of life during the transitory post-Civil War period.

Originally published in 1946, Voodoo In New Orleans examines the origins of the cult voodooism. The lives of New Orleans's most infamous witch doctors and voodoo queens have been re-created in this well-researched account of New Orleans's dark underworld.

At the turn of the century, people outside of New Orleans viewed the city through the eyes of journalist and author George Washington Cable. His writings portrayed a tropical European city nestled on the banks of an American river still teeming with the literary, artistic, and social developments of a late Renaissance. In his own romance with Louisiana, Cable came upon many stories written by its denizens. While Cable assisted some authors in finding places to publish their works, there were many stories he kept for himself. Much of this collection can now be found in Strange True Stories of Louisiana. "They are mine by right of discovery," writes Cable. "From various necessities of the case I am sometimes the story-teller, and sometimes, in the reader's interest, have to abridge; but I add no fact and trim naught of value away. Here are no unconfessed 'restorations,' not one. In time, place, circumstance, in every essential feature, I give them as I got them strange stories that truly happened, all partly, some wholly, in Louisiana." Strange True Stories of Louisiana is Cable's compilation of seven unusual, factual accounts of life and history in the area. They include tales of two French sisters who made the dangerous trek to the unsettled lands of North Louisiana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Focusing on New Orleans, Cable adds the story of "The 'Haunted House' in Royal Street," which spurs the imaginations of ghost hunters more than a century after its original writing. There is also a diary account, in its first published form, of a Union woman trapped behind the battle lines during the Civil War.

These stories reflect the Creole way of life during the transitory post-Civil War period.

The classic account of moving from slavery to freedom, by the celebrated African-American educator and university founder. Booker T. Washington believed that every man and woman deserved a chance, regardless of their skin color. This classic work of literature, originally published in 1901, relays the story of a man born into slavery who, once freed, pursued education and racial equality. This new edition of Booker T. Washington's autobiography features a foreword from media personality and advocate for the advancement of African Americans Mychal Massie. In his story, Washington details his childhood and recounts his often-tumultuous transition from slavery to free life. His unwavering efforts eventually led to the founding and evolution of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a college created to further the education of African Americans. The distinguished author and educator remembers such notable speeches as the Atlanta Compromise in 1895 and recognitions from Samuel C. Armstrong and President McKinley. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was born into slavery and freed after the Civil War in 1865. After completing his education and teaching at Hampton Institute, he headed the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Upon giving his famous Atlanta Compromise Speech, Washington became a national figure and received an honorary master's degree from Harvard University and an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College. The publication of “Up from Slavery” garnered Washington an invitation from Theodore Roosevelt to visit the White House, the first given to an African American.

This heartbreaking story of two Acadian lovers separated during the expulsion of the French settlers from Nova Scotia has become one of the most enduring, endearing, and popular poems in American literature. In this edition, the story is enhanced by the new insightful foreword by Henri-Dominique Paratte. Longfellow's epic marks a stylistic shift from reflective lyrics and ballads to a longer tale in verse. The English edition contains sixty-one pages of notes and explanations, which make this an excellent study guide. Readers will discover even more about the poem that will for eternity move those "who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient . . . who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion." The renowned Pamphile Le May French translation is also available. Although not originally written in French, the beautiful language is perfectly suited for the poem and, in fact, would have been the mother tongue of Evangeline herself.

When The Grandissimes was first published in 1880, the book was criticized for its portrayal of forbidden love and the clash of cultures during the Reconstruction. Since then, the novel has been considered a masterful critique of racial and social inequality that resonates with readers even today. Cable's work has been compared to that of writers as varied as Balzac, John Kennedy Toole, and Henry James.

There's treasure buried beneath Texas soil or stowed in caves covered over by stones. It might be the mother lode that's waiting to be uncovered or some Spanish pirate's chest of jewels and doubloons. Nearby a ghostly figure walks the dunes, or is it just an illusion brought on by the approaching dust storm? In this new mass market edition, J. Frank Dobie has collected accounts of some of the best known tales of booty hidden in Texas hill and dale as well as some eerie stories and the origins of Texas flowers, names, and streams. You will learn about "The Enchanted Rock in Llano County," "Lafitte's Treasure Vault," and "The Holy Spring of Father Margil at Nacogdoches." These lively stories reveal the love for adventure, independence, and mystery that has made Texas the state it is. And just as Dobie hoped, with these tales readers from all over can see the "richness of their own traditions." Dobie believed that worthwhile literature about this region had to be derived from an understanding of its life, lore, and history. Legends of Texas indirectly led to the founding of the Texas Folklore Society, the nation's second oldest folklore organization.