Doctoral candidate releases book on regional folklore
David J. Puglia, of Middletown, Penn State Harrisburg American studies instructor and doctoral candidate, tracks through the hills, houses, and hollows of Pennsylvania in his book “South Central Pennsylvania Legends and Lore.” Released by History Press, the book offers a full history of the region, from the folkways of the Pennsylvania Dutch to the rocky relations between German and English settlers and local tribes.
Puglia’s work reveals lore while exploring regional legends like that of the wizard of Cumberland County, the headless ghost that roams the back roads of Schuylkill County, the powwow practitioners of York County, and the Hummelstown hermit lingering in Indian Echo Caverns.
Puglia has worked with the Western Kentucky Folklife Archives, the National Park Service, and the Archives of Pennsylvania Folklife and Ethnography. His research interests include American legend and rumor and folklife ethnography.