“Probably no section of the country can rightly claim more mystifying, more intriguing, or more enduring ghost stories and unexplained phenomena than Kentucky.” With this statement, based on years of personal research and investigation, the author presents his second collection of such tales from the Bluegrass State.

Kentucky's beauty is offset by a violent past of Indian wars, Civil War battles, and the tragic spirits from these conflicts.

This is the first book of Kentucky ghost stories by acclaimed author Michael Paul Henson. He tells the bewildering tale of the tragedy at Devil’s Hollow in Kentucky. Henson has added a selection of other ghost stories and unexplained phenomena. The narratives contained in this volume are relatively unknown for two principal reasons—first, no one has previously taken the time to collect and compile them; second, these are stories generally limited to certain localities and have seldom been told outside the area of occurrence. While many stories may have been transmuted through the years of telling, the essence remains the same and the fascination and intrigue provoked by these tales of wonderment has not been diminished.

Old Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, is the third-largest National Preservation District in the United States and the largest Victorian-era neighborhood in the country. Beneath the balconies and terraces of the district's Gothic, Queen Anne, and Beaux Arts mansions, current residents trade riveting stories about their historic homes. Many of these tales defy rational explanation. When David Dominé moved into one of these houses, he dismissed local rumors of a resident poltergeist named Lucy. However, before long, unnerving, disembodied footsteps and mysterious odors caused him to flee his home in the middle of the night. Since that night, David Dominé not only embraced the possibility of supernatural phenomenon but also turned it into a popular tour series and best-selling collection of books, which have brought new attention to this iconic neighborhood. The book that launched the guided tours, Ghosts of Old Louisville, introduced readers to the hauntingly beautiful Lady of the Stairs and the Widow Hoag, who waits eternally near Fountain Court for a lost child who will never return. These tales of things that go bump in the night not only reveal why Old Louisville is considered the "most haunted neighborhood in America," but also help to preserve this historically and architecturally significant community.

Vernon and Irene Castle popularized ragtime dancing in the years just before World War I and made dancing a respectable pastime in America. The whisper-thin, elegant Castles were trendsetters in many ways: they traveled with a black orchestra, had an openly lesbian manager, and were animal-rights advocates decades before it became a public issue. Irene was also a fashion innovator, bobbing her hair ten years before the flapper look of the 1920s became popular. From their marriage in 1911 until 1916, the Castles were the most famous and influential dance team in the world. Their dancing schools and nightclubs were packed with society figures and white-collar workers alike. After their peak of white-hot fame, Vernon enlisted in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps, served at the front lines, and was killed in a 1918 airplane crash. Irene became a movie star and appeared in more than a dozen films between 1917 and 1922. The Castles were depicted in the Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), but the film omitted most of the interesting and controversial aspects of their lives. They were more complex than posterity would have it: Vernon was charming but irresponsible, Irene was strong-minded but self-centered, and the couple had filed for divorce before Vernon’s death (information that has never before been made public). Vernon and Irene Castle’s Ragtime Revolution is the fascinating story of a couple who reinvented dance and its place in twentieth-century culture.

A collection of ghostly tales from across the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The hills and hollows -- and cities -- of the Bluegrass State offer excellent opportunities for the ghost hunter. Guide Patti Starr leads readers on a tour of 30 legendary haunted spaces in Kentucky. She snoops around creepy farmhouses and grim garrets, eerie rooms and dark corners, exposing the ghosts and recording first-hand accounts of terrifying encounters. Clear maps and photographs help readers locate each dire destination, while more sensitive souls can enjoy experiencing these visits from the other side from the safety of their armchair.