"My Curious and Jocular Heroes: Tales and Tale-Spinners from Appalachia" by Loyal Jones--Book Review

 

For many years, Loyal Jones has been the dean of Appalachian scholars and is one of the founding fathers of the field of Appalachian Studies.  But like most other people who earn a preeminent position in any field, he also had mentors, teachers, professors, and a wide collection of others who helped shape him into the scholar and writer he is.  Loyal Jones is now fully retired at age 93 after a long career as a professor, writer, and creator of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College.  I have been influenced greatly by Loyal Jones and his work and have written about him extensively on this blog.  He wrote at least two of the most important books in the field of Appalachian Studies, "Appalachian Values" and "Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands".  He also wrote several books of Appalachian humor with his co-author, Billy Edd Wheeler, who is sometimes better known as a song writer. 

This book, which was published in 2017 by The University of Illiniois Press may well be Loyal Jones' last book since he is now 93 and no longer living in Berea, Kentucky, near the college where he spent his academic career.  This book pays homage, both in biographical essays and the inclusion of selected works, to four of his professional heroes, three of whom he knew personally: Cratis D. Williams; Bascom Lamar Lunsford; Leonard Roberts; and Josiah H. Combs.  These men were all experts in the field of Appalachian Folk Music and Appalachian Humor which includes the world famous Jack Tales.  The book, as mentioned above, is composed of biographical chapters about each man and an immediately following section of folk songs, folk tales, or jokes each man is credited with documenting and publishing in their work.  This book is a wonderful assessment of the lives and academic careers of each of these men and a tribute to the extensive work they performed in collecting these songs, stories, jokes, and riddles which have been passed from person to person in an oral tradition which predates the English settlements in the Tidewater region.  Each of these men were also well educated and worked professionally but the book also makes apparent that each of them was most likely happiest when he was sitting in a hickory bottom chair on a porch in some isolated hollow in Appalachia listening to songs and stories being told by a local resident who often had no formal education but had spent their lives hearing, remembering, and retelling these stories, singing these ancient folk songs, and passing them on once again so they would be preserved in the record over time.  

Josiah H. Combs was the first graduate of the Hindman Settlement School and obtained a doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris.  He worked as a professor of languages in several major universities and published several collections of these stories and songs in his lifetime.  Cratis D. Williams rose from a one-room school in Lawrence County Kentucky to become the dean of the graduate school at Appalachian State University and wrote a master piece doctoral dissertation about the literature of Appalachia.  He was also, like Loyal Jones, one of the founding fathers of the field of Appalachian Studies.  Bascom Lamar Lunsford was both a collector of these historic tales and songs and a performer as well.  He also happened to be an attorney and founder of the eponymous folk festival which still exists today at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina.  

Leonard Roberts grew up in Pike and Floyd Counties in Eastern Kentucky and was a multi-instrumental performer and college professor at both Berea and the University of Pikeville.  He is known as one of the greatest collectors of Appalachian folk songs and folk tales. He founded the University of Pikeville Press which published some of his work.  His two best known books, "Up Cutshin and Down Greasy" and "Sang Branch Settlers", are both required reading for anyone who wants to learn about Appalachian folk tales and folk songs.  He died far too young in a wreck with a coal truck near his home in Betsy Layne, Kentucky.  

Loyal Jones did a masterful and loving job of writing about the lives of each of these men whom he refers to as "my curious and jocular heroes" in the title of the book. He explains in the book his use of the multi-definitional word "curious" to describe these men.  Curious can mean both inquisitive, inquiring, and odd or strange.  Each of these men fits that definition in the most positive manner.  They were odd in that they chose to spend their lives collecting, recording, and passing on these stories and tales which most of their neighbors never bothered to remember.  And each of them was deeply curious about their native world in Appalachia and wanted to learn all they could about it in order to preserve and propagate that knowledge.  If you love Appalachia and Appalachian Studies, you need to come to know these five wonderful men with Loyal Jones included as their equal and biographer.  If you love a good folk tale, often leaning to the ribald, you will love these men and this book.  Read it and enjoy it, and learn some of these songs and stories to pass on along your way. 

"I Bought Me A Dog A Dozen Authentic Folktales From The Southern Mountains" Collected by Leonard Roberts--Book Review

Dr. Leonard Roberts--Photo by Lynneda Stansbury

Dr. Leonard Ward Roberts, Ph. D., was the premier folklorist and collector of both folk tales and folk songs during his tragically abbreviated career which ended on April 26, 1988, at the age of 71 when he was involved in a fatal wreck with a coal truck as he was pulling onto US 23 at the mouth of Mare Creek near Betsy Layne in Floyd County Kentucky where he had lived most of his life. He published a total of 8 books during his career, all of which were collections of folktales or folksongs from Central and Southern Appalachia except for "The McCoys: Their Story" which was about the famous McCoy family of the notorious feud along the Kentucky/West Virginia border.  This little book we are discussing was the first of his published books and is actually more a pamphlet than a full fledged book; but, it is well worth reading if you can locate a copy.  It was published in 1954 by the Council of The Southern Mountains in Berea, Kentucky, and was reprinted in at least 20 printings until at least 1982.  But, I suspect that most of those printings were small and the book is difficult to find.  At the time of its publication, this book was apparently popular enough with lovers of folklore and Appalachian Studies that it did sell several hundred to a few thousand copies.  Good luck if you try to find a copy! 

The book is a pamphlet of 48 unnumbered pages and contains 12 Appalachian folktales and 13 Appalachian riddles.  It is a fun read whether or not you have ever been exposed to the folktale format which traveled with the early settlers from the British Isles to the colonies in America, and thence across the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Appalachia where the social isolation of the mountains can be credited with at least part of their ability to survive into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These kinds of oral folktales exist in many forms in nearly all areas and cultures of the world.  In a way, what it boils down to is that after a long day as a hunter gatherer, it was comforting and pleasurable around the family fire to tell or listen to fantastic stories being told by anyone who was willing to stand up and speak out in the folktale form.  Thousands, if not millions, of these folktales arose and were preserved by both tellers and listeners, some of whom went on to either become or rear future court jesters, bards, balladeers, and strolling minstrels. Roberts devoted his life to teaching in several Kentucky colleges, (Berea College, Morehead State University, Union College, and Pikeville College) collecting folktales and folk songs, and to publishing as the driving force of what became the Pikeville College Press.  The tales in this little book represent several types of the genre and include one, "The Candy Doll", which Roberts says, in the brief introduction, is the only version he has ever seen of it in America.  It is a witch story which Roberts says he collected from a 12 year old girl in Leslie County Kentucky. Actually, another of the stories was also provided to Roberts by a different young girl in Eastern Kentucky. The "Candy Doll" contains what Roberts calls the element of "Murder by Sympathetic Magic".  There are also folktales in the collection which represent giant tales; hunting tales; wise fox tales; and another which is sometimes referred to as his most well known, "Raglif, Jaglif, Tetarlif, Pole", which is about a man attempting to escape from the clutches of a giant.  

This is a fine little book to utilize to introduce yourself both to the work of Leonard Roberts and to the field of Appalachian Folklore.  If you cannot locate a copy of this book, you can generally always find copies of "Up Cutshin & Down Greasy" or "South From Hell-Fer-Sartin".  Reading any of Leonard Roberts' books will also serve as a wonderful introduction to that ever growing group of Big Sandy River Valley natives such as Dr. Roberts, The Judds, Crystal Gayle, Chris Stapleton, Molly O'Day, Loretta Lynn, Cratis Williams, and US Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson who have, over the last century plus, wielded such a powerful cultural influence on the entire nation in roles as varied as academic scholar, supreme court justice, Bluegrass singer, country singer college basketball coach, and ballet dancer.