Lou Jones was a friend before 1947, when he became director of the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, where he directed two museums, Fenimore House and the Farmers’ Museum. He was a born teacher as well as a writer, folklorist, and leader. He was a great human being, and the best man at my wedding in 1955.

My wife, Mary-Ellen, and I spent many New Year’s celebrations in Cooperstown with Lou and his three children. And when Hill and Wang came into being in 1956, I was gratified when Lou agreed to write Things That Go Bump in the Night (Hill and Wang, 1959). It was a very successful book.

From ghosties and ghoulies
And long-legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord preserve us!

Bump, as everyone I know called it, is one of the finest and most comprehensive books of ghost stories yet written in this country. The book offers more than two hundred stories of the restless dead; each of the six chapters is made up of a continuous flow of narrative.

Lou retired from the New York State Historical Association in 1972.