Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments All those who have researched or written about southern humor are indebted to the groundbreaking anthology edited by William B. Dillingham and the late Hennig Cohen in 1964 for Houghton Mifflin, Humor of the Old Southwest, as well as its subsequent editions from the University of Georgia Press in 1975 and 1994. While Franklin J. Meine and Walter Blair had been collecting and writing about this material for over three decades, it was this anthology that largely helped define the field, sharpened the focus on the major figures, and provided critical guidance for all those scholars who followed in their footsteps. Only a few textbooks, originally created for classroom use, have had such a profound influence on criticism as practiced in its field—Understanding Fiction and Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren come to mind. Humor of the Old Southwest belongs in such company. Since the last edition appeared, a considerable body of scholarship has been published on the major figures and the place of the movement in American literary history. Additional writers who belong to the tradition have been identi fied, and more recent modes of criticism have been applied to their works. We have also seen the publication of a major critical statement on the subject, James H. Justus’s magisterial Fetching the Old Southwest: Humorous Writing from Longstreet to Twain, by the University of Missouri Press in 2004. The time seems ripe to bring some fresh eyes and ideas to the subject and gather a new selection of texts. Since Cohen and Dillingham did such a perceptive job of selecting stories and sketches the first time around, inevitably we have come up with some of the same pieces. We have, however, added some new ones and included several humorists only recently discovered. We have also included Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), the only major American author to contribute to and emerge from the movement. Our intention has not been to dismiss Humor of the Old Southwest, as it will continue to occupy its place of importance in critical history, but to continue the conversation which Cohen and Dillingham so eloquently started. We only hope to maintain the same level of discourse. xii Acknowledgments M. Thomas Inge would like to thank all of the lovers of American humor and the stories of Sut Lovingood who have encouraged and actively contributed to his research and understanding over the years. They are far too many to mention here, but each is well remembered. More specifically, gratitude is due to the administration of Randolph-Macon College for allowing him to serve as the Robert Emory Blackwell Professor of Humanities for twenty-six years now. President Robert R. Lindgren and Provost William W. Johnston kindly granted a sabbatical leave in 2008 so that the work could be finished. A Rashkind Grant awarded by the Committee on Faculty Development supported a part of the research. His research assistant, Rachelle Phillips, provided invaluable help. All of these have helped make this book possible, but finally it is Donaria who keeps everything in motion with a samba beat. Ed Piacentino extends his gratitude and acknowledgment to High Point University , particularly Betsy Merricks and Stephanie Parsons of the reference staff of Smith Library for securing copies of some of the works featured in this anthology and Megumi Yoshioka, Mariko Ito, Ayumi Tahara, and Megumi Tanaka, English Department student assistants who helped to transcribe some of the texts. I would also like to thank Jim Kibler of the University of Georgia for biographical information on Adam G. Summer; David Estes of Loyola University of New Orleans for suggesting texts from Thomas Bangs Thorpe’s “Letters from the Far West” that we have included in the anthology; Mark Keller of Middle Georgia College for responding to queries about William C. Hall; and Fritz Oehlschlaeger of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for sharing insights about Joseph M. Field’s “A Lyncher’s Own Story.” The Special Collections of Duke University Library provided a photocopy of Francis James Robinson’s “Old Jack C—” for which I am deeply grateful. Finally, I wish to express special appreciation to my wife Diane for her constant love, continuous support and encouragement, and for reminding me that there is a life outside academe worth savoring. ...