My Kind of Country

Carl Carmer was one of the most popular writers from the 1930s through the 1950s, that popularity based largely on the success of his 1934 folk memoir Stars Fell On Alabama, which chronicled his encounters with the people and cultural landscape of the state during the years that he taught at the University of Alabama. But Carmer was born and bred in the state of New York, a “Yorker” through and through. And as such, he wrote extensively on the state’s folklore, landscape, historical figures, and local customs. My Kind Of Country: Favorite Writings About New York is a collection of fifty-odd writings - poems, stories, and essays - from those decades. Carmer’s writing today seems quaint; and apart from the handful of tall tales, show more folklore, and ghost story, none of remainder is truly compelling, and sadly most of it is forgettable. show less