The Jack Tales

This is a 1943 collection of Appalachian folk tales about Jack, the hero of the beanstalk story. Jack also kills a whole family of giants, tames wild critters, thwarts witches and devils, ties Death up in a sack, and has a pile of other adventures. Richard Chase collected the stories from storytellers he identifies, and he annotates extensively. He also amends some of the stories, but his notes let the interested reader know where he has left his fingerprints. It's a fascinating book.

You know Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk? He got up to much more than just giant-killing. If I remember correctly, Richard Chase traveled around the southern Appalachians collecting all the Jack stories that had been passed down in the oral tradition for generations and this is the result. They probably get kind of predictable, but we used to fight over who got to check this out of our school library. This book was a lot of fun.

I first read this book in 1982 as a sophomore in high school taking a folklore and mythology course at Harvard Summer School. Back then, while enjoyable, it was an academic affair, leading to papers and comp lit. What a difference from my recent out loud readings to my six year old son. Speaking the words in the Appalachian dialect which Chase captures, I couldn't help having a southern drawl. Jack remains the quintessential Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn: clever, mischievous, cunning, successful and not above a mean prank. The Jack Tales are great for kids, though a bit violent in this PC age, as well as adults. They remain a rich resource for scholars who want to study their European roots. Above, all, this is true American literature in its show more rawest and purest form. show less

The only thinkg I truly remember from 3rd grade back in the early 70's was friday afternoons when my teacher would read another chapter from The Jack Tales. I felt I was there in the story with Jack and I couldn't get enough of it. I made sure I was never sick on a friday.

This is a collection of tellings of the "Jack" tales - "Jack and the Bean Stalk" is well known, but there were many more. These versions were collected in North Carolina, where my mother was born.

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