Humor of the Old Southwest - (Bibliographies and Indexes in American Literature) Annotated by Nancy Snell Griffith (Hardcover)

About the Book

During the early part of the nineteenth century, the Southwestern frontier moved from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, through Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, to Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Using a variety of styles and subjects, humorists in the frontier states of the Southwest wrote tall tales and humorous stories that made use of dialect and emphasized cruelty, violence, and depravity, in rebellion against the sentimental morality of conventional literature. Such tales flourished from 1835 through 1861 and helped buffer the pioneers during their everyday hardships. The humorists' stories, though exaggerated, were often rooted in the real characters and incidents of the frontier and as such serve as a social history of the period. Many of these stories were originally published in local newspapers and reprinted in William T. Porter's Spirit of the Times. Although the popularity of this type of humor died out with the beginning of the Civil War, its influences can be seen in the works of Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Thomas Wolfe.

The bibliography lists works about Southwest humor in general and by and about nine major humorists including David Crockett, Joseph Glover Baldwin, George Washington Harris, Johnson Jones Hooper, Henry Clay Lewis, Augustus Baldwin Longstreeet, Charles Fenton Mercer Noland, William Tappan Thompson, and Thomas Bangs Thorpe. These two main sections are supplemented by author and general subject indices. As the first book-length bibliography in this field, Humor of the Old Southwest will make a useful tool in academic libraries and will find a place in collections of folklore, American literature, and humor.

Book Synopsis

During the early part of the nineteenth century, the Southwestern frontier moved from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, through Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, to Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Using a variety of styles and subjects, humorists in the frontier states of the Southwest wrote tall tales and humorous stories that made use of dialect and emphasized cruelty, violence, and depravity, in rebellion against the sentimental morality of conventional literature. Such tales flourished from 1835 through 1861 and helped buffer the pioneers during their everyday hardships. The humorists' stories, though exaggerated, were often rooted in the real characters and incidents of the frontier and as such serve as a social history of the period. Many of these stories were originally published in local newspapers and reprinted in William T. Porter's Spirit of the Times. Although the popularity of this type of humor died out with the beginning of the Civil War, its influences can be seen in the works of Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Thomas Wolfe.

The bibliography lists works about Southwest humor in general and by and about nine major humorists including David Crockett, Joseph Glover Baldwin, George Washington Harris, Johnson Jones Hooper, Henry Clay Lewis, Augustus Baldwin Longstreeet, Charles Fenton Mercer Noland, William Tappan Thompson, and Thomas Bangs Thorpe. These two main sections are supplemented by author and general subject indices. As the first book-length bibliography in this field, Humor of the Old Southwest will make a useful tool in academic libraries and will find a place in collections of folklore, American literature, and humor.

Review Quotes

?The first part of this work is a general bibliography of books, essays, articles, dissertations, theses, bibliographies, and anthologies about Southwestern humor. The second part provides primary and annotated secondary lists for Joseph Glover Baldwin, David Crockett, George Washington Harris, Johnson Jones Hooper, Henry Clay Lewis, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Charles Fenton Mercer Nolan, William Tappan Thompson, and Thomas Bangs Thorpe.?-Studies in the American Renaissance

"The first part of this work is a general bibliography of books, essays, articles, dissertations, theses, bibliographies, and anthologies about Southwestern humor. The second part provides primary and annotated secondary lists for Joseph Glover Baldwin, David Crockett, George Washington Harris, Johnson Jones Hooper, Henry Clay Lewis, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Charles Fenton Mercer Nolan, William Tappan Thompson, and Thomas Bangs Thorpe."-Studies in the American Renaissance

About the Author

NANCY SNELL GRIFFITH is Director of the Regional Studies Center at Arkansas College. She is the author of Edward Bellamy: A Bibliography (1986) and co-author of Albert Schweitzer: An International Bibliography (1981).