Bigfoot Lives, If Only in Literature

As reported by both The London Times and KTVU news in California, two men in the woods of Georgia claim to have found a Bigfoot. In addition to the 7-ft 500 lb. corpse now reportedly in their possession, Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton say they saw several living family members of the dead Bigfoot in the surrounding trees. The men are calling their beast Rickmat, after themselves. The corpse of Rickmat, along with video footage and "DNA evidence" will be presented in public tomorrow. You can check out the Bigfoot tracker website for more information, or to buy expensive t-shirts.

In honor of this exciting development, I thought it might be fun to look at some of my favorite Bigfoot literature. I only know of two examples, but both are absolutely terrific.

Ron Carlson's two stories "Big Foot Stole My Wife" and "I Am Bigfoot" are both available in his selected stories, A Kind of Flying. If the titles alone don't make you want to read them, I don't know how to get through to you.

Also, if you haven't read the books In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot, Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir and Bigfoot: I Not Dead by Graham Roumieu, please do yourself a favor. (You can peek inside them on Amazon before buying them at your independent bookseller). Roumieu's drawings and words are both hilarious and heart-string-tuggers. Here's an example from Bigfoot's "Self Improve" list in I Not Dead:

Bigfoot got get more perfect.
Refine Bigfootocity. Pull together.
Think outside box. Lose ten pound.
Learn speak the French. Ballroom dance.
Demonstrate superior knowledge of
fine wine at dinner party in charming
non-pretentious manner.
Be Oscar Wilde of woods.
It so hard.