Richard M. Dorson (1916–1981)

Regional Folklore of the USA: By contemporary standards, this book is dated and perhaps a bit politically incorrect and simplistic. But the book is a valuable archive of fascinating folktales, beliefs, and descriptions of regionally-based forms of traditional culture in the United States. Dorson provides a great variety of stories that are well-worth reading, and they could provide the basis for further study. I found it especially interesting how Dorson was showing ways to integrate the show more study of folklore into the study of history and geography with this collection of materials. I also found this book to be interesting as a resource for gauging how the thinking of social scientists and humanities scholars has changed over the past 30 years. It also provides a great resource for comparing how regional folklore has changed throughout a sort period of time in this nation. show less

This book was a lot of fun. Dorson traveled all over the Upper Peninsula back in the 40s to record old folklore and tall tales before they vanished. Mainly he recorded: Lumberjack lore, Mining lore, Great Lakes superstitions, and Native American folklore. Many of the tales can find their origins in Europe as many of the early settlers were French, Cornish, Finnish and Swedish. These tales were changed in subtle ways to reflect the new environment of the storyteller. However a good number of show more the tales are original North American lore.

The book is full of tales of north woods sorcerers, larger than life lumberjacks, curses, creatures from Indian folklore and ghosts that lived in the mines. The lumberjack part was by far the funniest. It really hit home
how different men are today -- perhaps for the poorer. These guys were rougher than you would ever believe, yet they still lived by a strict code of honor. In fact, they were almost like Vikings; they wore their hair long, cherished their double-headed axes like prized heirlooms, drank like
fish and fought like bears. Like the old west, this is what happens to men when there are no women around, or very few.

The book goes on to describe a series of infamous lumberjacks. Lumberjacks made a name for themselves by accomplishing great feats of strength or by being downright crazy. An example of the latter was P. K. Small. He was a big freak of a man who was born with two rows of teeth! His eyes were slightly crossed. He rarely talked, only chuckled. Whenever he got in a fight, he usually took off someone's nose or ears with his teeth. The lumber camps were full of men with missing or chewed ears and
noses, casualties of Small. He also has a strange tolerance to pain. While trying to bite off a man's finger, the other man gouged one of Small's eyes out and left it hanging in his cheek. It didn't bother small, so the man
gouged out the other eye. Eventually Small let go and popped his eyes back in. This is just one example. There were others that made Small look downright civilized. Many lumberjacks were missing toes. This isn't from mishaps with an axe; it's from getting blind drunk, passing out in the snow, and getting frostbite.

The book was a lot of fun. At times it got a wee bit dry, as tales can vary in excitement, but over all it was fascinating and entertaining. show less

Over 500 pages of folklore

Book Description: Chicago & London/The University of Chicago Press, Soft copy, [1964], Fourth Impression. 12mo, ix, 328(2)pp, Green w/yellow lettering, important dates, bibliographical notes, table of motifs and tale types, index, vg ex-lib (lib markings fep & title pg. A VERY good reading copy.)