Loyal Jones, himself known as “Mr. Appalachia” by virtue of his many books and his twenty-three-year tenure as director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College, has written a book about four men who were his heroes in the world of folklore: Bascom Lunsford, Josiah Combs, Cratis Williams, and Leonard Roberts.
“The purpose of this book is to introduce Lunsford, Combs, Williams, and Roberts to new generations, along with some of the treasured lore that they collected, made sense of, performed with great enjoyment, and preserved for the rest of us,” Jones writes in his introduction (2). The book accordingly has four sections, one on each folklorist, with each section divided into three parts: first a biography, followed by samples of the lore collected by each, and finally various photographs of each man.
All of these men were connected to Appalachia—Lunsford in North Carolina, and the others in Kentucky. They were all attracted to folklore at a young age, and even before they became folklorists, they felt some inner drive to collect and share the lore they found with the world, both through performance and publication. Finally, they all felt an affinity with the people from whom they collected.
In many ways this book is a history of folk festivals, as Lunsford helped organize America’s first event known as a “folk” festival in 1928 in Asheville, N.C. (14), and many other festivals through the decades; the other men were also involved in folk festivals in their regions of Kentucky. Lunsford collected narratives, folkways, and especially ballads and songs, having gained fame for his own original “Old Mountain Dew,” recorded by many artists. Dorothy Scarborough mentioned Lunsford in her book, A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains. All of the sections contain musical annotations along with lyrics of folksongs.
The Combs section includes brain twisters such as “I Am My Own Grandfather” and examples of “fartology” and “anal caterwauling.” Most interesting are the “May It Please the Court” stories, funny courtroom narratives.
The section on Williams mentions that his 1959 dissertation submitted to New York University was “said to be the longest dissertation ever accepted by an American university” at 1,661 pages long (127). It took his advisors two years to read “The Southern Mountaineer in Fact and Fiction,” but it established him as an Appalachian scholar. The samples of his lore include “Grandma’s Whorehouse” and other raucous narratives, as well as songs and ballads.
The last section, on Roberts, tells of his Jack tale scholarship, as well as his attendance at Berea College as a young man. Upon visiting the hurdle races on Berea’s athletic field, Roberts is said to have asked, “What are those fellers in their underwear doing?” . . . “He entered the next event in his regular clothing and set a new record!” (174). This section quotes Carl Lindahl, who explains how Roberts used folk narratives in the classroom to make progress with his English students, and how having the students write down their folk stories helped transform Roberts from an English teacher into a folklorist (176-7).
Most touching is Jones’s final tribute to Roberts: “Roberts lived an interesting life and was a pioneer scholar with unique insight, since he was a native of the region that he studied. While many other Appalachian scholars and governmental experts were looking at the big picture of Appalachia—economics, educational advancement, social improvement, and above all change—he was visiting families in the coves and ridges and valleys and documenting their inner lives: what they thought and said, how they entertained themselves, what was sacred, what was funny to them, and what was worth remembering and passing on to the next generations. It was this legacy that Leonard Roberts captured and preserved.”
A folklorist will find this book fascinating to read, hard to put down. It touches a chord that all folklorists feel ringing through their bones, a desire to appreciate and understand folklore and to build one’s life around the quest for such understanding. This review gives only the tiniest sampling. What stands out in this book is the unity of purpose running through the lives of four men, and Jones’s careful scholarship in presenting their lives honestly but with deepest respect.
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[Review length: 704 words • Review posted on September 12, 2019]