Francis Edward Aberenthy was Regents Professor Emeritus of English at Stephen F. Austin State University, the executive secretary and editor of the Texas Folklore Society, the curator of exhibits for the East Texas Historical Association, and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. In addition to editing twenty-one Texas Folklore Society publications, he wrote Singin' Texas, Legends of Texas’ Heroic Age, and all three volumes of the Texas Folklore Society history, published by the University of North Texas Press.

The Big Thicket of East Texas is one of the few areas left in the United States where people can still establish a close and friendly intimacy with untamed nature. The secretive beauty and mystery of this pocket of wilderness lying between the sandy East Texas forests and the prairies of the Gulf Coastal region would inevitably inspire tales - and the pioneers who came to terms with this land were an individualistic and legend-creating lot.