Introduction: An approach to an American fantasy tradition --
Part I: Folk, tall, and weird tales: Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving --
Feathertop / Nathaniel Hawthorne --
Uncle Remus / Joel Chandler Harris --
The Saga of Pecos Bill / Edward O'Reilly --
Rosy's journey / Louisa May Alcott --
The Yellow sign / Robert W. Chambers --
The Mysterious shadow over Innsmouth / H.P. Lovecraft --
Oh ugly bird! / Manly Wade Wellman --
The fool / David Drake --
Narrow valley / R.A. Lafferty --
Jackalope / Alan Dean Foster --
The Lottery / Shirley Jackson --
Children of the corn / Stephen King --
Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / Ursula K. Le Guin.
Part II: Fantastic Americana: The jolly corner / Henry James --
A ghost story / Mark Twain --
The other lodgers / Ambrose Bierce --
Ma'ame Pelagie / Kate Chopin --
The devil and Daniel Webster / Stephen Vincent Benet --
The valley was still / Manly Wade Wellman --
The howling man / Charles Beaumont --
Twenty-three / Avram Davidson --
We are the dead / Henry Kuttner --
Where the summer ends / Karl Edward Wagner --
Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to Iowa / W.P. Kinsella --
Hatrack River / Orson Scott Card --
The hero of the night / Bradley Denton --
The whimper of whipped dogs / Harlan Ellison.
Part III: Lands of enchantment and everyday life: The griffin and the minor canon / Frank Stockton --
The enchanted buffalo / L. Frank Baum --
The yellow wall-paper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --
The moving finger / Edith Wharton --
Slow sculpture / Theodore Sturgeon --
The coin collector / Jack Finney --
Prey / Richard Matheson --
The Geezenstacks / Fredric Brown --
Paladin of the lost hour / Harlan Ellison --
The Black ferris / Ray Bradbury --
Bed & breakfast / Gene Wolfe --
Her pilgrim soul / Alan Brennert --
Mrs. Todd's shortcut / Stephen King --
Among the handlers / Michael Bishop --
Select critical bibliography.