Books published by publisher Blair

From Blackbeard's den at Ocracoke, to the Hills of the Seven Sisters at Nags Head, to the misty swamps of Shallote, there is hardly an inch of territory along North Carolina's coast without a legend attached to it. Inlanders may be skeptical regarding the sometimes miraculous, often horror-filled tales that make up coastal folklore, but Outer Bankers accept the incredible as fact. But this book is more than a collection of coastal legends. It is an affectionate portrait of the people who daily pull a living out of the treacherous waters of the Atlantic . . . a tribute to the hardiness and courage that have made the Banker a rare breed . . . a breed whose true stories are, indeed, stranger than fiction. For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest. Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown comprise Virginia's historic triangle. Some of the most important chapters of America's history unfolded in these settlements. The region has been the scene of violent confrontations between settlers and the original natives, an emotional struggle for independence, a bitter civil war, and, most recently, a transformation into one of the country's finest examples of historic restoration. Some parapsychologists believe that spirits can be awakened by a sudden flurry of activity. With so much activity occurring throughout the area's history, it is little wonder that there are so many documented sightings of ghosts in this triangle. In this book, Jackie Behrend brings together thirty-seven of the region's most intriguing spirits. From Williamsburg come tales about the Wagon of Death, which can still be heard rolling down Nicholson Street as it brings prisoners to the gallows; the colonial celebrations that continue at the Raleigh Tavern; the residential area where all is quiet except for the ghosts still fighting the Revolutionary War; and the ongoing wedding that brings men form both sides of the Civil War together. From Yorktown come stories about the sounds that emanate from the cave where Lord Cornwallis hid during the town's siege during 1781; the mournful tune that is heard on Surrender Field; and the melancholy feeling that overcomes people retracing the path where slaves were once marched. From Jamestown comes the tale of a deserted lover's angry ghost who still haunts the banks of the James River. From Carter's Grove comes the story of a slave who still searches Old Country Road for his lost family. Just as you can step back in time by visiting the restored settlements of the historic triangle, you can now revisit the past through the stories about the ghostly spirits who haunt Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown. When Hauntings of Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown was written, Jackie Eileen Behrend was the owner of J.B. Tours, which offered guided tours of the historic Triangle. Her most popular tour, “The Haunted Williamsburg Tour”, was conducted by lantern light and featured many of the stories in this book. Jackie later moved to Ocean City, Maryland, where she led tours of Ocean City and Berlin. She now lives in Pensacola, Florida.

Vowing revenge after his brother is killed by Bloody Bill Cunningham and his marauding Tories, 16-year-old Thomas Young joins the Little River Regiment of Mounted Militia in 1780. This book chronicles 18 months in Thomas’s life as he fights in the South Carolina back country during the Revolutionary War. It follows Thomas as his friend is severely wounded during the battle at Stallion’s Plantation and as he finds himself in the thick of the fighting at Musgrove’s Mill and Blackstock’s Plantation. Five months into his military service, Thomas participates in the pivotal battle of Kings Mountain, where he fights barefoot because his shoes are worn out. On his 17th birthday, Thomas leads his company of militia cavalry into battle at the Cowpens, where 2,000 men fight for an hour before Daniel Morgan’s troops prevail over the British forces under Banastre Tarleton. Just after the battle, Thomas is attacked by four British dragoons and suffers six sword wounds. Nearly dead, he is taken prisoner and interrogated by Tarleton. He escapes and is nursed back to health by Lettie Hughes, a beautiful red-headed girl. After the British are defeated at Yorktown, Thomas resolves to leave his vengeful ways and live a life of goodwill toward all. Dr. Zeiss has published 21 books on history, education, and self-improvement. Former president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC, he was named the 2005 CEO of the Year for all 1,200 community colleges in America by the Association of Community College Trustees. He now lives in Charlotte with his wife.

From Blackbeard's den at Ocracoke, to the Hills of the Seven Sisters at Nags Head, to the misty swamps of Shallote, there is hardly an inch of territory along North Carolina's coast without a legend attached to it. Inlanders may be skeptical regarding the sometimes miraculous, often horror-filled tales that make up coastal folklore, but Outer Bankers accept the incredible as fact. But this book is more than a collection of coastal legends. It is an affectionate portrait of the people who daily pull a living out of the treacherous waters of the Atlantic . . . a tribute to the hardiness and courage that have made the Banker a rare breed . . . a breed whose true stories are, indeed, stranger than fiction.For decades, the folk tales of Charles Harry Whedbee have been available wherever you care to look on the Outer Banks. Their popularity has transcended Whedbee's loyal readership among North Carolinians and visitors from the Northeast and the Midwest. Charles Harry Whedbee was an elected judge in his native Greenville, North Carolina, for thirty-plus years, but his favorite place was the Outer Banks, Nags Head in particular. Whedbee was the author of five folklore collections. He died in 1990.

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was one of the most notorious pirates ever to plague the Atlantic coast. He was also one of the most colorful pirates of all time, becoming the model for countless blood-and-thunder tales of sea rovers. His daring exploits, personal courage, terrifying appearance, and fourteen wives made him a legend in his own lifetime. The legends and myths about Blackbeard have become wilder rather than tamer in the 250 years since his gory but valiant death at Ocracoke Inlet. It is difficult for historians, and all but impossible for the general reader, to separate fact from fiction. Author Robert E. Lee has studied virtually every scrap of information available about the pirate and his contemporaries in an attempt to find the real Blackbeard. The result is a fascinating and authoritative study that reads like an exciting swashbuckler. Lee goes beyond the myths and the image Teach so carefully cultivated to reveal a new Blackbeard―infinitely more interesting as a man than as a legend. In the process, he has captured the spirit and character of a vanished age, "the golden age of piracy." Robert E. Lee was a former law professor who traced his own ancestry to a possible link with Blackbeard. A native of Kinston, North Carolina, he earned degrees from Wake Forest, Columbia, and Duke universities. The author of sixteen law books, Lee wrote the newspaper column "This is the Law".

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was one of the most notorious pirates ever to plague the Atlantic coast. He was also one of the most colorful pirates of all time, becoming the model for countless blood-and-thunder tales of sea rovers. His daring exploits, personal courage, terrifying appearance, and fourteen wives made him a legend in his own lifetime. The legends and myths about Blackbeard have become wilder rather than tamer in the 250 years since his gory but valiant death at Ocracoke Inlet. It is difficult for historians, and all but impossible for the general reader, to separate fact from fiction. Author Robert E. Lee has studied virtually every scrap of information available about the pirate and his contemporaries in an attempt to find the real Blackbeard. The result is a fascinating and authoritative study that reads like an exciting swashbuckler. Lee goes beyond the myths and the image Teach so carefully cultivated to reveal a new Blackbeard—infinitely more interesting as a man than as a legend. In the process, he has captured the spirit and character of a vanished age, "the golden age of piracy."Robert E. Lee was a former law professor who traced his own ancestry to a possible link with Blackbeard. A native of Kinston, North Carolina, he earned degrees from Wake Forest, Columbia, and Duke universities. The author of sixteen law books, Lee wrote the newspaper column "This is the Law".

In December 1606, three ships carrying 144 passengers and crew sailed from London bound for a land that had already claimed more than its share of English lives. In May of the following year, little more than 100 men would disembark to settle on a small peninsula in the James River. Eight months later, only 38 men were still alive in the fort they had named Jamestown. Jamestown is well known as the first permanent English settlement in the New World; largely unknown is how fragile that permanence was. Most Americans have a general awareness of the dangers faced on any frontier, but not the particular hardships that confronted the Jamestown colonists―starvation, disease, conspiracy, incompetent leaders, and, of course, intermittent war with the neighboring Native Americans. This volume collects contemporary accounts of the first successful colony the first thirteen United States. The earliest text dates from 1605, two years before the first landing; the last describes events up to 1614, when the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe secured a brief measure of peace for the beleaguered colony. Most of the accounts were written by the colonists themselves; others reflect the perceptions and expectations of investors and observers back in England, while two reveal the keen and hostile interest taken in the colony by England’s chief rival, Spain. Several of them were written for widespread publication; others were either private letters or reports meant only for certain audiences. These narratives take the reader from the London stage to Powhatan’s lodge, from the halls of royal power to the derelict hovels of the Starving Time.They show the modern reader what an adventure the founding of English America was―the desperate battles and fraught negotiations with Powhatan, the political intrigues in Europe and Virginia, the shipwreck that inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the discoveries that thrilled the colonists, the discoveries that broke their hearts. Ed Southern, a graduate of Wake Forest University, is a descendant of John Southern, who arrived in Jamestown in 1619. Ed Southern was a Wake Forest senior studying in London when he walked into the 200-year-old bookshop Hatchard’s and realized how excited the possibilities presented by shelves full of books made him. After graduation, he worked at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Hanging around after he finished setting up for lectures, concerts, performances, and classes gave him an excellent postgraduate education in the liberal arts, which came in handy later when he dropped out of graduate school. He went to work for one of the major bookselling chains and was a member of the training team sent to open the company’s first store in London, a massive four-story media emporium on Oxford Street. It was a bit like coming full circle, but not quite. A year later, he left the bookstore and went to work for John F. Blair, Publisher, as the sales director. He presently serves as the executive director of the North Carolina Writers Network.

Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown comprise Virginia's historic triangle. Some of the most important chapters of America's history unfolded in these settlements. The region has been the scene of violent confrontations between settlers and the original natives, an emotional struggle for independence, a bitter civil war, and, most recently, a transformation into one of the country's finest examples of historic restoration. Some parapsychologists believe that spirits can be awakened by a sudden flurry of activity. With so much activity occurring throughout the area's history, it is little wonder that there are so many documented sightings of ghosts in this triangle. In this book, Jackie Behrend brings together thirty-seven of the region's most intriguing spirits. From Williamsburg come tales about the Wagon of Death, which can still be heard rolling down Nicholson Street as it brings prisoners to the gallows; the colonial celebrations that continue at the Raleigh Tavern; the residential area where all is quiet except for the ghosts still fighting the Revolutionary War; and the ongoing wedding that brings men form both sides of the Civil War together. From Yorktown come stories about the sounds that emanate from the cave where Lord Cornwallis hid during the town's siege during 1781; the mournful tune that is heard on Surrender Field; and the melancholy feeling that overcomes people retracing the path where slaves were once marched. From Jamestown comes the tale of a deserted lover's angry ghost who still haunts the banks of the James River. From Carter's Grove comes the story of a slave who still searches Old Country Road for his lost family. Just as you can step back in time by visiting the restored settlements of the historic triangle, you can now revisit the past through the stories about the ghostly spirits who haunt Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown.When Hauntings of Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown was written, Jackie Eileen Behrend was the owner of J.B. Tours, which offered guided tours of the historic Triangle. Her most popular tour, “The Haunted Williamsburg Tour”, was conducted by lantern light and featured many of the stories in this book. Jackie later moved to Ocean City, Maryland, where she led tours of Ocean City and Berlin. She now lives in Pensacola, Florida.

He was the youngest major general in the Confederacy. He fought in the first battle of the Civil War and was still fighting after Appomattox. In between, he led what U. S. Grant later called the worst drubbing I ever got, at Cold Harbor. He was even rumored to be Lee's hand-picked successor as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.Yet General Robert F. Hoke was never the subject of a full-length biography until Daniel W. Barefoot came along. In 1996, John F. Blair, Publisher, released Barefoot's General Robert F. Hoke: Lee's Modest Warrior to great acclaim. In April 2001, Blair will proudly release a paperback edition of this important Civil War biography.Barefoot argues that his subject was ignored by biographers for so long because of the greatest of Hoke's qualities of character - his sincere modesty. Hoke refused to use his fame from the war as a tool for political or material gain. He even refused the governorship of North Carolina when it was virtually handed to him. Instead, he quietly went back to work, hitching his war-horse to a plow. A leader in the rebuilding of North Carolina's economy, he did not talk about the war or even attend veterans' reunions, insisting that Southerners needed to put the war behind them and move on.Hoke's father died when the boy was only seven. Robert studied briefly at the Kentucky Military Institute, then returned home to take responsibility for the family businesses at the tender age of 16. When the war began, Hoke received a second lieutenant's commission. Within three years, he was a major general. Barefoot recounts Hoke's meteoric rise, as well as the skill and daring in battle that brought it about. He provides grippingaccounts of the Seven Days, Second Manassas, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. His account of the Confederacy's last stand against Sherman has been called among the best from a Confederate perspective.

In December 1606, three ships carrying 144 passengers and crew sailed from London bound for a land that had already claimed more than its share of English lives. In May of the following year, little more than 100 men would disembark to settle on a small peninsula in the James River. Eight months later, only 38 men were still alive in the fort they had named Jamestown. Jamestown is well known as the first permanent English settlement in the New World; largely unknown is how fragile that permanence was. Most Americans have a general awareness of the dangers faced on any frontier, but not the particular hardships that confronted the Jamestown colonists—starvation, disease, conspiracy, incompetent leaders, and, of course, intermittent war with the neighboring Native Americans. This volume collects contemporary accounts of the first successful colony the first thirteen United States. The earliest text dates from 1605, two years before the first landing; the last describes events up to 1614, when the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe secured a brief measure of peace for the beleaguered colony. Most of the accounts were written by the colonists themselves; others reflect the perceptions and expectations of investors and observers back in England, while two reveal the keen and hostile interest taken in the colony by England’s chief rival, Spain. Several of them were written for widespread publication; others were either private letters or reports meant only for certain audiences. These narratives take the reader from the London stage to Powhatan’s lodge, from the halls of royal power to the derelict hovels of the Starving Time.They show the modern reader what an adventure the founding of English America was—the desperate battles and fraught negotiations with Powhatan, the political intrigues in Europe and Virginia, the shipwreck that inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the discoveries that thrilled the colonists, the discoveries that broke their hearts. Ed Southern, a graduate of Wake Forest University, is a descendant of John Southern, who arrived in Jamestown in 1619.Ed Southern was a Wake Forest senior studying in London when he walked into the 200-year-old bookshop Hatchard’s and realized how excited the possibilities presented by shelves full of books made him. After graduation, he worked at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Hanging around after he finished setting up for lectures, concerts, performances, and classes gave him an excellent postgraduate education in the liberal arts, which came in handy later when he dropped out of graduate school. He went to work for one of the major bookselling chains and was a member of the training team sent to open the company’s first store in London, a massive four-story media emporium on Oxford Street. It was a bit like coming full circle, but not quite. A year later, he left the bookstore and went to work for John F. Blair, Publisher, as the sales director. He presently serves as the executive director of the North Carolina Writers Network.

Whether you like sleeping among spirits or simply enjoy reading a good ghost story, Haunted Inns of the Southeast is your guide to ninety mysterious places across nine states. At the Don Cesar Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida, you might witness a man dressed like Panama Jack chatting with workers. He is Thomas Rowe, the resort's founder, who died more than sixty years ago. At the Andrew Jackson Hotel in New Orleans―America's most openly haunted city―the courtyard is turned into a playground by orphans who perished in a fire many years past. At the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, author Sheila Turnage checks into room 545 and tries to solve the mystery of the "Pink Lady." In Union, South Carolina, guests at the Merridun may be joined in bed by the ghost of a little white dog. You'll be both chilled and amused by these stories, some of which are related here for the first time by the inns' owners and employees. You'll also appreciate the hard information―addresses, phone numbers, price ranges―in case you'd like to pay a visit. Sheila Turnage's Three Times LuckyMo and Dale Mystery series was a Newbery Honor winner, New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Finalist, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor book. Her writing has appeared in Southern Living, Early American Homes, American Legacy, International Poetry Review, and many other publications. She lives on a farm in eastern North Carolina.

Tennessee is famous for more than just Elvis Presley, Davy Crockett, and Jack Daniel’s. The Volunteer State is also home to enough ghosts, haunts, and spirits to make your skin crawl. Christopher K. Coleman’s Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee is a new collection of 28 tales of the supernatural. This compilation explores never-before-published legends that span the entire state, from the mysterious mountains of Appalachia to the haunted banks of the Mississippi River. Those familiar with Tennessee’s most famous apparitions will find new thrills in Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee. Readers may have heard of the Bell Witch, but what of her sister, a vengeful spirit known to the folks on the eastern part of the Highland Rim as the Buckner Witch? What about the phantoms of the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, a restless troupe of ghosts who perform for unwitting audiences? And what about Hampton, the well-dressed butler of Oakslea Place in Jackson? He often greets visitors, but he’s been dead for years. Of course, this collection wouldn’t be complete without a look at the spirits of legends like Elvis Presley and the ghosts of famous music sites like Opryland and Music Row. Readers will find these stories and more in Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee. This new compilation of authentic folklore offers a fresh look at things that go bump in the night in the Volunteer State. Christopher K. Coleman has written several books devoted to Southern ghost lore, including Ghosts and Haunts of the Civil War, Dixie Spirits, and Strange Tales of the Dark and Bloody Ground. He received his B.A. in history from St. Anselm College and is a member of the Tennessee Folklore Society. He lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee.