Folklore scholar Jan Harold Brunvand assembles the best-known urban legends--including The Hook, The Spider in the Hairdo, and The Baby-Sitter and the Man Upstairs--and provides an enlightening and entertaining analysis of their variants and evolution. The Vanishing Hitchhiker was Professor Brunvand's first popular book on urban legends, and it remains a classic. The culmination of twenty years of collection and research, this book is a must-have for urban legend lovers.