Research Catalog

Title

My curious and jocular heroes : tales and tale-spinners from Appalachia / Loyal Jones.

Author

Jones, Loyal, 1928-

Publication

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 236 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"With this book, Jones introduces to new generations four scholars of Appalachian folkways who made major contributions to the arts, culture, and values of the Appalachian people. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, born in North Carolina, collected ballads, songs, tunes, and stories--before there were tape recorders--by committing them all to memory and later recording his "memory collection" for Columbia University (1935) and the Library of Congress (1949). Josiah H. Combs, a Kentuckian who got a doctorate at the Sorbonne, taught languages, collected stories and songs, gave ballad recitals, was an authority on Kentucky mountain speech, and was a great raconteur. Cratis D. Williams, another Kentuckian, was the father of Appalachian studies based on his massive dissertation, The Southern Mountaineer in Fact and Fiction. He was a scholar and teacher, a singer of the old ballads, and teller of folk tales. He became Jones's treasured mentor. And the master storyteller Leonard W. Roberts, also born in Kentucky, was a pioneer collector and publisher of Old World folktales, riddles, ballads, and lyric songs, too. Beyond mere biography, this book introduces the reader to some of the lore preserved and performed by Lunsford, Combs, Williams, and Roberts throughout their lives. The end of each biographical chapter is filled with collected stories, songs, and jokes representing the breadth of each man's research and repertoire. With "My Curious and Jocular Heroes," Jones provides not only the historical and cultural contexts of the lives of four of his personal heroes, but also brings together significant texts and music from Appalachian folklore in order to make a contribution to the field of Appalachian studies"--

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books.

Subject

• Folklore > Appalachian Region
• Tales > Appalachian Region
• Folk music > Appalachian Region
• Storytelling > Appalachian Region
• Storytellers > Appalachian Region
• Oral tradition > Appalachian Region
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Rural
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage
• MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Country & Bluegrass
• Folk music
• Folklore
• Oral tradition
• Storytellers
• Storytelling
• Tales
• Appalachian Region

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• Biographies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Bascom Lamar Lunsford -- Jokes, Stories, Songs, and Recitations That Lunsford Liked to Perform -- Josiah H. Combs -- Combs's Stories, Scholarship, Wit, and Songs -- Cratis D. Williams -- A Sampling of the Scholarship, Wit, and Humor of Cratis Williams -- Leonard Ward Roberts -- Tales, Riddles, Jokes, and Songs from the Leonard Roberts Collection.

ISBN

• 9780252041136
• 0252041135
• 9780252082672
• 0252082672

LCCN

• ^^2017019624
• 14247401

OCLC

983824508

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library