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The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil by [Bill Sprouse]

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Bill Sprouse

The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil Kindle Edition

by Bill Sprouse (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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For centuries, the story of the Jersey Devil has been part of the culture of southern New Jersey. A fire-breathing monster with the head of a horse, bat wings and the body of a kangaroo, the creature is said to be the thirteenth child of a Mother Leeds, born in 1735 when the woman put a curse on her unfortunate offspring.

Informed at a tender age by his grandmother--his BeBop--that he is distantly related to the beast, Bill Sprouse goes looking for the story behind the story of his family's connection to the famous monster. The result is part memoir, part travelogue and part lively tour through three hundred years of New Jersey history.

The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil traces the origins of the legend to a little-known pamphlet war that sent the Leeds family to Leeds Point in the waning years of the seventeenth century, with Daniel Leeds, the family patriarch, labeled "Satan's harbinger" in the process. It follows the story through its connection with the residents of the Pine Barrens (the famous Pineys), who were said to live in fear of the creature, and it looks at the legend in its modern variations: X-Files episodes are made about it, a pro hockey team is named after it, and residents of Galloway Township seek to adopt the monster as the Official Town Mascot.

The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil is a book about the suburbs and the uneasy relationship they have with their own history, and it's about one suburbanite's attempt to understand his own family's history in the most unlikely of places.

Print length

250 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 28, 2013
File size

907 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...[I]nformative and funny..." -- S.P. Sullivan, Inside Jersey

"Sprouse's gonzo approach to the subject provides a delightfully amusing counterpoint to the often dry but thorough account he gives of the conflicts that led to the demonization of Daniel Leeds, a renegade Quaker and father to Japhet Leeds, supposed progenitor of the legendary beast. He interjects contemporary interviews and wanderings with an extraordinarily well-researched account of the historical context that gave birth to this enduring Fortean phenomenon. His descriptions of both colonial and contemporary Piney culture are vivid and accurate, dispelling denigrating myths and pseudo-scientific frauds that have persisted for centuries. His personal reflections on his own origins and reasons for pursuing the subject offer an enlightening insight into the restless malaise that often afflicts those who are raised in the suburban tracts that abut the Pine Barrens. It's a remarkably entertaining and informative book, and a must-have for anyone interested in early colonial American history, the Pine Barrens, or the erratic and absurd cryptid known as the Jersey Devil." -- Al Cabal, Splice Today

"The book reads more like a John McPhee-type essay than a dry history tome as the author mixes history with his own stories of his grandmother and his interactions with various locals as he tries to figure out what the Jersey Devil actually is." -- Ben Ruset, NJPineBarrens.com

"...[I]nterwoven among the author's personal insights is a deep history

of Quakerism in West Jersey." -- Atlantic Heritage

About the Author

Bill Sprouse grew up in Atlantic City and Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. When he was a young boy, his grandmother said he was related to the Jersey Devil. What could she have meant by such a thing? --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GNJ3JJG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oyster Eye Publishing; 1st edition (October 28, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 28, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 907 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 250 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #584,379 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,394 in Cultural & Regional Biographies (Kindle Store)
- #4,941 in Historical Biographies (Kindle Store)
- #17,985 in Community & Culture Biographies

Customer Reviews:
36 ratings

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3 star		6%
2 star		9%
1 star		13%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Laura

Much of this happens in a Wawa parking lot.

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2020

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Quick read full of New Jersey lore, both old and new. I picked this up for more perspective on Colonial NJ and Quaker impact on South Jersey, but was surprised to find a long section with "interviews" ambushing Wawa employees and customers in the parking lot at 2 a.m. I don't think the ad hoc Wawa testimony adds a whole lot to the project, honestly. "Local color" I suppose.

It is fascinating (and oft-mentioned) that the author is a direct descendant of the Leeds family, which spawned an outcast child who became the Jersey Devil, according to myth. Perhaps Sprouse is a bit too close to the subject at times, as this is mostly a memoir of growing up in Atlantic County, NJ. Vivid and romantic memories of riding a bus to Atlantic City aside, Sprouse asserts his project is to catalog suburban experiences of The Jersey Devil to the canon. But the hideous history of racism, redlining, anti-Black discrimination and white flight that shaped the suburbs -- across NJ and around Atlantic City specifically -- is notably absent from these pages. THAT is where the blood-curdling content lies.

This book is 10 years old but some of the attempts at painting an inclusive story are already cringey. Everyone in his family refused to eat at the local Indian restaurant in the 80s, but he didn't! One time he walked to a parade and a "Chinese" man waved at him -- how'd he know this stranger's ancestry down to nationality?!

I love local lore, and am glad I read this book. Hoping future projects are collaborations to get a better breadth of NJ experiences.

Helpful

Matthew Matusky

one of my favorite books about NJ

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

Let me preface this review with two things:

1) I am NOT a reader. I never got past level 4 of Hooked on Phonics and I have only read 2 books out of pleasure (not for school) one being this very book and the other being John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens (I hope you can find the trend here)
2) I read this book in the middle of February on the beach in South Florida so needless to say I was in a sunny disposition (and that my book smells like sunscreen)

I picked up this book blindly not knowing what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. I found it quite colloquial, entertaining and (especially the parts on the quaker feuds) very funny. It talked more about the history of the legend of the Jersey Devil and how it became part of the cultural psyche of NJ suburbanites. However (what I found most interesting) it was also a history of how people write about the pine barrens. We all know that the pine barrens needs to be preserved from an ecological point of view, but what this book does is preserve it from a cultural point of view.

It does jump between time periods from Daniel Leeds in the 1700s to the authors present day excursions into Wawa, but I enjoyed this style because it is very similar to how MY brain works (it kept me constantly engaged and focused). Although I just wished he wrote more about his own experiences growing up with the legend and his informal interviews with locals (maybe we will get a second book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

The best part of this book was the ending. it easily talked about themes and feelings of growing up in suburban NJ that I was never able to articulate. In the last 20 pages alone I found myself constantly nodding my head in agreement (and saying OMG yea totally!). What starts out as a history book ends as an elegant commentary on growing up in NJ and being at peace with that.

One person found this helpful

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Peggy

I absolutely loved this book. It's hilarious. It's fascinating. It's warm and beautiful. Who knew?

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

It’s wonderful. It makes you want to love New Jersey in the way that Bruce Springsteen’s music makes you want to love New Jersey. If Bill Bryson’s humor is up your alley, you’ll think it’s hilarious. If you’re from New Jersey, or you might know someone who might possibly be from New Jersey, it’s totally relatable. If you’re a fan of Wawa, obscure local history, genealogy, road trips, the Farmer’s Almanac, “documentaries” about cryptids, 17th century religious feuds, 19th century journalism, read the book. It’s like candy. And especially, if you loved your granny, read this book.

One person found this helpful

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John Santosuosso

The Devil, You Say

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Behind many legends and folktales there may lie a kernal of actual history. Bill Sprouse's book on the Jersey, or more properly, Leeds, Devil points exactly in that direction. The author's account of Daniel Leeds and his quarrels with the Quakers are well researched. Daniel and his almanacs undoubtedly helped give birth to this story. However, I wish he had given more attention to the alleged parents of the Devil, Japhet and Deborah Leeds. Since Sprouse is related to the Devil through the Leeds side of its alleged parentage, his focus on the paternal side of its ancestry is understandable, but Deborah Leeds also probably figured significantly in the legend's birth. Sprouse explores this to some extent, but there is probably more to that part of the story than appears here.
There is some excellent material on the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the much maligned Pineys who inhabit them. Sprouse portrays them in a kinder and more enlightened light than has often been the case. There are also other interesting aspects of New Jersey history and culture that are treated here.
If your sole interest in reading this work is to find out what it says about the Jersey Devil, at times you may get frustrated by the writer's side trips into his personal history and other events. However, if you are searching for evidence that there is more to the story of the Jersey Devil than just the name for a hockey team, then this is must reading.

2 people found this helpful

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