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LOVER’S LEAP LEGENDS FROM SAPPHO OF LESBOS TO WAH-WAH-TEE OF WACO |
Visit a Lover’s Leap on your Vacation—but don’t jump! Award-winning new book reveals locations of these tragic, but invented, Indian legends.
“The views,” adds co-author Crystal Payton, “are grand and these romantic stories, though fakelore, are fascinating.”
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– Authors Leland and Crystal Payton are pleased at the popular and critical reception of their 352-page book, Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco. Published by Lens & Pen Press, it contains 545 color illustrations.
A reviewer on Amazon agreed Lover’s Leaps are intriguing places to visit: “This book is divided by area and would be a wonderful travel companion for side trips, or day trips to one of the legend sites and add an interesting and fun adventure to a vacation.”
Families have visited Rock City with its spectacular Lover’s Leap in Chattanooga for generations. How many realized that a short drive away in Gadsden, Alabama, leaping Noccalula is cast in bronze in a city park? Mark Twain’s hometown, Hannibal, Missouri boasts a stunning Lover’s Leap overlooking the Mighty Mississippi. Upriver in Wisconsin they found the spot where, in 1805, Zebulon Pike recorded the first known Lover’s Leap legend featuring Native Americans. Research unearthed many other obscure sites as well.
The Missouri Writers Guild awarded Lover’s Leap Legends First Place for Nonfiction, 2021. The book was also a Finalist in the Multicultural Non-Fiction category of the 2021 International Book Awards.
A Mind-Boggling Work of Research, concluded an Amazon top reviewer. “This is, I believe, the only book-length account of Lovers Leap legends in the United States and beyond, and it’s a terrific one. Folklorists both amateur and professional will find much to savor in this book. And did I mention that it has an excellent index, the sign of an author who has truly taken care?”
At the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Awards, the oldest exclusive contest for independent presses, Lover’s Leap Legends was awarded a bronze medal in the Popular Culture category.
A Benjamin Franklin Awards judge was enthusiastic: “Lover’s Leap Legends is a spectacular leap into contrarian history, a celebration of ” sentimental romantic infection.” It is one of the oddest surveys I have ever read; I could not tear myself away from it. Bonus, it is lavishly illustrated, and a gift at its retail price. Describing themselves as “former flea market pickers,” the author/photographers/cultural anthropologists are perversely suited to this adventure. And what a treasure trove of local legend and artifact. And they are seriously funny. I had no idea that our fascination with this myth was as firmly embedded as they find. WOW. I immediately wrote a half-dozen history buffs to alert them to this marvel.”
Midwest Book Review said, “An inherently fascinating, beautifully illustrated, impressively informative, expertly organized and presented study, Lover’s Leap Legends is an extraordinary, unique, and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library collections.”
Lover’s Leap Legends, though intended for a general audience, has proven useful to scholars. A PhD candidate whose thesis examines the phenomenon wrote: “Your collection is really phenomenal and beautifully presented. I believe that everything you have written and collated provides valuable information and much food-for-thought for future scholarship. As I read it further, I am amazed at the variety of information you have collected. … Your publication … has really helped me to hone my presentation, so your work has already been useful in scholarship!”
The authors were honored that a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and celebrated author concluded: “Lover’s Leap Legends is the definitive visual sourcebook for an American tradition that is as disturbing as it is amusing.”
Lover’s Leap Legends is available at amazon.com. Lens & Pen Press currently has a sale offering all their titles at 50 % off postage paid. http://www.dammingtheosage.com/buy-the-book/
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Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco
ISBN: 978-0-9673925-9-2
352 pages, 7.5×10 545 color illustrations
$35.00
