Wednesday, July 4, 2018

American folklore from Charles Skinner

Charles M Skinner - American Myths & Legends (1903)

Archive.org direct link - Vol 1
Archive.org direct link - Vol 2
Open Library main page


Myths & Legends of Our Own Land (1896)

Archive.org direct link - Vol 1
Archive.org direct link - Vol 2
Open Library main page


Myths & Legends of Our New Possessions & Protectorate (1899)

Archive.org direct link
no Open Library page


Myths & Legends Beyond Our Borders (1899)



Myths & Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits and Plants (1911)



For the Fourth of July here are some collections of American folklore.  These are more interesting, for me anyway, because they're not just tall tales but include ghost stories, monsters, hidden treasure and similar stories.  The first couple are two-volume sets that appear to have been fairly popular at the time.  Skinner continued with another book on Canada and Mexico (Borders) and Caribbean and Pacific (the somewhat imperialist-minded Possessions).  Just for completeness I've included his book about botanical stories.

Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852-1907) was a long-time journalist and editor for the Brooklyn Eagle.  He also wrote a few plays and naturalist works.  His bibliography includes the promising sounding American Communes but this turns out to be a 30-page pamphlet published by the newspaper that hasn't been digitized.

The most information I can find about Skinner is a piece by Richard M. Dorson in American Folk Legend: A Symposium.  He largely focuses on an overview of the work but does say that even though Skinner didn't source his materials much of it seems to be actual folklore and not invented stories.