Contents
Introduction
Intimate Strangers: Mike Lucas Was Struggling to Build a Life. Bob Casey Was Fighting to Keep His. This Is Their Story.
Passing the Torch: Former Klansman Roy Frankhouser Still Dreams of the Day When Men Will Be Judged by the Color of Their Skin rather than the Content of Their Character.
The Shame that Was Byberry: To Behold the Horrors of This Philadelphia Mental Hospital Is to Wonder: Just Who Are the Lunatics?
The Pencil: What’s Portable, Chewable, Doesn’t Leak, and Is Recommended by Ann Landers?
The Great Zambelli’s Theory of the Big Bang: A Profile of Mr. Fireworks, George “Boom Boom” Zambelli
John O’Hara Could Go Home Again: But No Cheering Crowd Would Await the Once-Despised Novelist in Pottsville.
Drawing the Line: The Surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon Were Hired in 1763 to Settle a Simple Border Dispute. They Never Knew Their Work Would Become One of the Most Famous Boundaries in the World.
The Chair of Death: Some Have Been Dragged to It; Others Have Run to It. They Have Died Crying and Laughing. Many Have Died as Converts; Others Have Shouted Their Rejections. No Two Stories Are Alike.
Why Would a Nice Town like Jim Thorpe Want to Be Mauch Chunk—Again?: How a Pennsylvania Town Came to Be Called Jim Thorpe—even though the Famous Native American Athlete Never Set Foot in It
Pennsylvania’s Deer-Hunting Season: The Largest Participatory Recreation Event in the World?
Tales of the Pennsylvania Turnpike: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Is, in a Very Real Sense, America’s Highway—a Fenced City, 470 Miles Long and 200 Yards Wide, with a Heterogeneous and Resurgent Stream of Mobile Citizens. And Every Mile Has a Story.
Updike Is Home: The Author Vowed to Leave His Pennsylvania Home Behind, but He Never Quite Escaped—in His Work or His Life.
Acknowledgments