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ON THE TRACK OF THE BIGFOOT by Marian T. Place

ON THE TRACK OF THE BIGFOOT

By

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 1974
Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Now that the late Roger Patterson's Bigfoot film has achieved national distribution, a more searching, critical evaluation of claims for the sasquatch's existence might have been expected. Place merely recovers old territory -- repeating many of the stories collected by Ivan Sanderson for his documentary (and far more thorough, if no less credulous) history of Abominable Snowmen (adult, 1961), and embellishing the evidence with invented dialogue and a few farfetched comparisons to other ""hairy monsters"" as far back as Beowulf and the Epic of Gilgamesh. As for Patterson and the Bigfoot hunters who have taken up his hunt, Place seems more impressed by the interest shown by Johnny Carson and Hollywood producers than by the opinions of scientists. Although the Bigfoot sightings reported here are satisfyingly scary, they aim to perpetuate the sasquatch legend for its entertainment value -- and at least a few of these anecdotes are as tall as the creature's footprints are big.