Holly Samson Hall

The Most Wonderful Wonder: True and Tragic Tales From the Back Roads of American History Holly Samson Hall

Buy a ticket and take a dark joyride through American history. See bizarre spectacles of calamity and disaster. Behold true stories of lives cut short by grisly murders, dreadful diseases, and devastating storms. Witness babies saved by extraordinary means, and children lost through heartbreaking tragedy.




?From folk magic to quack medicine, human oddities to ill-fated outlaws, you'll marvel at these frightful, forgotten pieces of our past.




Read true and tragic tales of sideshow mummies and shoes made from human skin. Learn the real-life origins of enduring murder ballads. Here you'll find stories about exceptional animals, the Ozark witch who could see the future, human wolves on the Oklahoma prairie, a man buried alive 50 feet below ground, medicine show miracles, and deadly baby bottles.




The Most Wonderful Wonder offers readers a heady mix of morbid curiosities, macabre fascinations, and Gothic Americana extracted from the murky waters of time. If you enjoy horrific history and sad endings, then you'll love this collection of twenty-four weird and wonderful tales.