Headwaters and Hardwoods: The Folklore, Cultural History, and Traditional Arts of the Pennsylvania Northern Tier ed. by Patricia M. MacNeal, Bonelyn L.Kyofski, and Kenneth A. Thigpen (review)

Long's reminiscences include short discussions about Mary EIa, Louis Smith, Doris Ulmann, John Jacob Niles, and various Berea personalities with whom he hunted, gambled, and drank or who left memorable impressions because of conversations or actions. This is not a text for art historians but is a narrative written in a conversational style which often begs the reader's indulgence. The "Confessions" has a table of contents but no index. Long seldom gives dates ofprojects or events; his narrative needs more discussion about processes and techniques; and in a few instances his Berea recollections are historically incorrect. However, his honesty and candor about Berea events and persons is an important community record seen through the eyes and life of "an outsider." It might be ofnote that upon leaving Berea to join the army, Frank Long left his tools, supplies, materials and numerous paintings with Mary EIa and the Berea College Art Department. He returned to Berea, built a home, and became active in the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild as a jeweler. He was a field representative for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska, New Mexico, and Florida. More recently he has resumed easel painting. In 1992 he gave Berea College thirty paintings, most ofwhich are original studies for the section murals. —Robert Boyce Patricia M. MacNeal, Bonelyn L.Kyofski, Kenneth A. Thigpen, editors. Headwaters and Hardwoods: The Folklore, Cultural History, and Traditional Arts of the Pennsylvania Northern Tier. Mansfield, Pennsylvania: Northern Tier Cultural Alliance, Mansfield University. 1997. 197 pages. Paperback. $12.50. There is an Appalachia north of Kentucky, and this seven-county Pennsylvania documentation project uncovers a land oftimber, coal, music, and culture not dramatically unlike that ofour more famiUar Southern mountains. Northern Pennsylvania was first settled by New Englanders, whose influence still lingers, but soon became a busy melting pot of English, Scotch-Irish, German, Italian, Slavic, Norwegian, Swiss, Swedish, French, Welsh, African-American, Jewish and, more recently, Amish escaping from the more crowded Lancaster County. As was true in Kentucky, timber was Northern Pennsylvania's first industry , followed by coal mining, graduaUy shifting to manufacturing and service industries. Home today to artists, folk artists, and musicians, die mountains ofPennsyvania are as rich in local and etiinic culture as are our own hüls. 66 Written by a dozen different authors, Headwaters and Hardwoods is sometimes uneven, as is the quality ofthe plentiful photographs and especially the maps and illustrations, but the story of the region and its people is never uninteresting. Studies similar to this one are uncovering local history across America, including folklife studies in many Kentucky counties, and the value ofthe work is a depth, detail, and personalization not found in more geographically comprehensive studies. —Garry Barker Boyd S. Ray. Blue Mountains and Green Valleys. Kearney, Nebraska: Morris Publishing, 1996. 105 pages. Paperback. $8.95. StoryteUers remain as much a part ofthe Appalachian experience as biscuits and gravy, dulcimers and folk songs. Outsiders often marvel at the abiUty of the natives to spin a spellbinding yarn, complete with sharp images, rhythmic language, and deeply satisfying punch Unes. Rarely, however, does the storyteUer write down the tales for aU the world to read. As one ofthe few to do that, Boyd S. Ray, a native of die East Tennessee hills around Johnson County, has gathered together stories and accounts of his life during the Great Depression. Overall, he has a knack for telling tales with vivid images and twists of plot that, when used expertly, place the storyteller at the reader's elbow, so richly he resonates in the reader's mind. Such a story, originally published in Appalachian Heritage, is "The Great Bean Adventure," which recounts the adventures of Boyd's favorite character, his father, as he struggles to grow a crop never before grown commercially in East Tennessee. While readers might assume that the focus in the story would be upon the ultimate success ofthe project and its influence on the local economy (an economy badly in need of a new crop), instead, most ofthe tale narrates the ingenious ways his father confronts and eventually outsmarts those who would try to take advantage of what they...