HARRIS, Joel Chandler; CHURCH, Frederick S. & MOSER, James H. (illus.)
An American classic with a complicated legacy. Harris, a white Southern journalist, collected these folktales from enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans on Georgia plantations. Serialized in newspapers across the United States, the tales proved hugely popular and this first edition was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. The books were responsible for compounding racist stereotypes and disseminating them across generations of readers, as well as portraying a rosy picture of the American South. At the same time, Harris was the first folklorist to make a serious effort to preserve Southern black oral traditions and his books are an important resource for ethnologists and contemporary writers attempting to reconstruct traditional folktales. BAL 7100. Grolier children's 100 #45. Grolier American 100 #83. Peter Parley to Penrod p. 56.
