17 h 18 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 17 h 18 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the thunder above the mountains is a ghostly crew playing ninepins?
In Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, Charles M. Skinner gathers American folk tales around the places that hold them. Haunted houses, strange rocks, vanished ships, and buried treasure mark the route. There is no single plot: the map leads, and each place opens another story.
Travel through New England’s haunted shores, the Dutch tales of New York and the Hudson, the early colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas, and Spanish legends of the South and West. Henry Hudson’s ghostly crew, Captain Kidd’s hidden gold, and Ponce de León’s search for youth reveal what people fear, desire, and remember.
What you’ll discover
- Ghosts along the Hudson Meet tales that turn mountain thunder into the sound of Henry Hudson’s ghostly crew.
- Gold beneath the shore Follow Captain Kidd’s treasure legends into stories of hungry hopes and searches that rarely succeed.
- Legends of early Virginia Explore the stories linking Pocahontas, John Smith, Jamestown, and the Powhatan people.
- The dream of youth Join the legendary search of Ponce de León for Florida’s Fountain of Youth.
- A land of voices Discover stories from Native peoples, Dutch, English, and Spanish settlers, towns, and mining camps.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love ghost stories, local legends, Revolutionary War lore and pirate treasure, and like to hear a place explained by its story.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young country has legends
- Rip enters the mountains' hidden world
- Love and loss shape the landscape
- Fear and humor share New England
- The coast remembers through ghost stories
- Each region carries its own hopes
- Western myths meet frontier ghosts
- Wonder follows those who keep searching
- Stories make places more than scenery
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Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete
by Charles M. Skinner · 1896
A lazy farmer naps on a Catskill mountain and wakes twenty years later to find his village changed.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What happens when a man falls asleep on a mountain and wakes twenty years later, with a gun rusted to scraps and a white beard down to his chest? Rip Van Winkle finds out, and his story opens Myths and Legends of Our Own Land by Charles M. Skinner.
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete at a glance
- Reading time
- About 10 h7 h 55 min fast, 11 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 142,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1896by Charles M. Skinner
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Catskill hills hold Rip and his ghostly crew
The book opens in the Catskills with the story most Americans already know. Rip Van Winkle is an idle, good-natured man who escapes a sharp-tongued wife by wandering the mountains with his dog and gun. Skinner says Rip was a real person, and he dates the sleep to 1769.
One September evening Rip meets a short, silent man with a green face and a keg on his back. He follows him to a plateau where strange men in old clothes play bowls without a word, and the rolling balls boom like thunder. Rip drinks their schnapps, lies down on a stone, and falls asleep.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1896
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 11 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Skinner, Charles M. Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-our-own-land-complete.
Skinner, C. M. (2026). Myths and legends of our own land — Complete. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-our-own-land-complete (Original work published 1896)
Skinner, Charles M. Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-our-own-land-complete.
@book{skinner2026myths,
author = {Skinner, Charles M.},
title = {Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-our-own-land-complete},
note = {First published 1896}
}
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What is Myths and Legends of Our Own Land about?
It is a collection of American legends gathered by Charles M. Skinner. The tales run from the Catskills and the Hudson to New England, the South, the Great Lakes and the West, and include ghosts, witches, spirits and buried treasure.
Was Rip Van Winkle a real person?
Skinner writes that Rip was a real man of Catskill who began his long sleep in 1769, and that the Van Winkle family still exists. The mountain tale of Hudson's crew playing bowls comes from older local tradition.
When was the book written and is it a true history?
Skinner compiled it in the 1890s from histories, newspapers and spoken accounts. He calls the contents legends rather than history, though some tales rest on real events, such as Salem in 1692 and Rogers's escape at Lake George.
The author
Charles M. Skinner
1852–1907 · American folklorist and writer
Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852–1907) was an American writer born in Victor, New York. He worked as a newspaper journalist in Brooklyn. His books included Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, published in 1896. He also wrote books about nature, gardens, and folklore.
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