Reviews & Short Features

Some NEW BOOKS in Review . The American Heritage Book of Great Historic sington stone, are the only Minnesota features Places. By the Editors of American Heritage. pictured. Curiously, Fort Snelling, which prob Narrative by BICHARD M. KETCHUAI. (New ably has greater visual appeal than any other York, American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., site on the upper Mississippi, as well as histori in co-operation with Simon and Schuster, Inc., cal interest of the first rank, has been over 1957. 376 p. IUustrations. $12.50.) looked. Furthermore, in the list of the state's historic places, it is erroneously located in St. Reviewed by Russell W. Fridley Paul. Such .shortcomings notwithstanding, the vol MORE THAN seven hundred illustrations and ume's flaws are overshadowed by its virtues, a capable text combine to make this volume a which include handsome color reproductions, vivid, comprehensive compendium of informa superb photographs, and a narrative enlivened tion about major historic sites in the United by bits of folklore and sketches of colorful in States. The work is divided into nine sections, dividuals. Certainly anyone seeking information each dealing with a geographic area made up about the nation's rich historical heritage wifl of several states. Accompanying every division find the book rewarding. is a map and a descriptive list of places to visit. LogicaUy, the contents begin with New England and move westward. Thus, in general, the book LITERARY LORE contains a chronological as well as a sectional review of certain aspects of national history and Folklore in American Literature. Edited by culture. JOHN T. FLANAGAN and ARTHUR PALMER Any work of this size and scope — nearly HUDSON. (Evanston, Illinois, Row, Peterson tliree thousand sites are pictured or noted — and Company, 1958. xvi, 511 p. IUustrations. poses a problem of balance. This reviewer feels $10.00.) that it tends to neglect the West, and especiafly his own Midwest. A bit of simple arithmetic Reviewed by Walker D. Wyman clarifies this point, for while 239 pages are de EVER SINCE the foundation of the American voted to the East and the Old South, only 130 Folklore Society in 1888, there has been a are assigned to the vast areas largely west of growing awareness of folk beliefs and the need the Mississippi that constitute the Middle, of their systematic collection and use. In the South, and Far West. same period the social historian has become Minnesota has been grouped with Illinois, interested in the life of the common man and Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin the sociologist has pursued the study of folk in a section entitled "Lakes and Prairies," which ways. Perhaps the historian and the sociologist is further aptly described as the "Heartland of have helped the folklorist enlarge his horizon a Nation." Among the Minnesota sites listed beyond that of the isolated Ozarks or the Old are a number of historic houses, including Oliver South, to find treasures among aU occupations H. Kefley's near Elk River, St. Hubert's Lodge in all regions. It takes a book like Folklore in at Frontenac, Henry H. Sibley's and J. B. Fari American Literature to show that the literary bault's at Mendota, and James J. HiU's in St. folk have been collecting, using, and even creat Paul; the Pipestone Quarry; Fort Ridgely; and ing lore for many years, for here the reader Grand Portage. The latter, along with the Ken- comes face to face with many familiar writers who have used lore as the touchstone to imagina MR. FRIDLEY, who is director of the Minnesota tion. Historical Society, has actively encouraged the The editors have ranged through American preservation of the state's historic sites. literary history and from forty-nine authors September 1958 95 have chosen Ulustrations of the use of folklore comed by afl interested in literature and lore, in literature. Eighty-seven examples are ar especially by the students in the fifty colleges ranged under these twelve headings: Indians that offer courses in this field. The biblio (Longfeflow's "Hiawatha" is one of seven selec graphical notes and the rich bibliography will tions used), the devfl (Benet's "The Devfl and lead anyone into a wondrous land of legend and Daniel Webster," for example), ghosts (Irving's tall tale, not behind the moon, but in almost "Legend of Sleepy Hoflow"), witchcraft (Haw any good library. thorne's "Feathertop"), buried treasure (Dobie's "Midas on a Goatskin"), tafl tales (Clemens' "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras ENGINEERS IN UNIFORM County"), literary ballads (Longfeflow's "The Roads, Rails & Waterways: The Army Engi Wreck of the Hesperus"), heroes and demigods neers and Early Transportation. By FOREST (Lindsay's "Bryan, Bryan, Bryan"), Yankees G. HILL. (Norman, University of Oklahoma (Lowefl's "The Courtin'"), Negroes (Harris' Press, 1957. xi, 248 p. Illustrations. $4.00.) "Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy"), songs and ballads ("Joe Bowers"), and folk wisdom Reviewed by Arthur J. Larsen (Sandburg's "The People, Yes"). Among these selections, perhaps a third are by relatively un IN THIS slender volume, Mr. Hfll has com known authors. Joel Chandler Harris heads the pressed the story of the part played by the engi list with five, but there are thirty-tour contribu neers of the United States army in building the tors of single selections. Eleven items — all bal American nation during the half century between lads — are so much a part ol the public domain the War of 1812 and the CivU War. Upon the that no author's names can be attached to critical need for transportation facilities — roads, them. William Faulkner's "Spotted Horses" is canals, and raflroads — along with that for the the longest selection used. removal of obstacles to navigation in rivers and the provision of safe harbor facilities, hinged the This coUection, selected and arranged by two expansion of America during the exciting first editors of balance and erudition, presents anew half of the nineteenth century. And the people the question of what folklore is and the respon turned to the federal government to help them sibility of the literary artist in its use. It is in opening the great interior of the continent. obvious that writers like Irving and Dobie have taken fanciful behefs of their time and region It was in response to this need that the corps and with artistry and integrity created a litera of army engineers came into being. Without at ture of historical accuracy and charm. It is also tempting to trace the lineage of the corps in known that such gifted writers as those con detail, it is sufficient to note that its beginnings nected with Disney's studios have created a apparently are to be found in the American Rev character, "Mickey Mouse," out of whole cloth olution, and that its mission only gradually be and given him to the folk. Much of Paul Bun came fixed. By 1802 an oddly mixed group ot yan has been given to the folk by literary and contract engineers employed by the government, commercial interests. In this volume the imag had joined the nucleus of a military service to inative poet of Vermont, Robert Frost, even become the "Corps of Engineers." It was sta gives the great Paul a wife. This is folklore in tioned at West Point on the Hudson and di reverse. There is no line drawn between literary rected by Congress to "constitute a military lore and folklore either in American thought or academy." Therein lies the story of the birth of in this volume. the United States Military Academy, founded upon the remnants of a series of military schools Folklore in American Literature blazes a trail at West Point which had existed briefly during through literary history and should be wel- the American Revolution. MR. WYMAN, icho is profcssor of history in Wis MR. LARSEN of the history faculty in the Duluth consin State College at River Falls, is the author Branch of the University of Minnesota was a of numerous books and articles on the history member of the Minnesota Historical Society's of the West. He recently collaborated in editing staff from 19S8 to 1947, serving for some years a volume entitled The Frontier in Perspective as superintendent. He is the author of an un (Madison, 1957). published study of early roads in Minnesota. 96 MINNESOTA History After the War of 1812, under the leadership Croly, Richard Ely, Simon Patten, Thorstein of Major Sylvanus Thayer, the academy de Veblen, and Carl Rauschenbusch, and the cen veloped as an engineering school, and tor half tral magazine of the Progressives, the New Re a century thereafter West Point supplied the public. By concentrating on serious progressive bulk of training for army engineers, and served, thinkers, he can focus on the logic of the move in fact, as the nation's major engineering school. ment at its vital core. This is not a book ot un The men who came from that school explored, connected essays about isolated philosophers. By surveyed, and mapped the West, built its roads, artful organization, Mr. Noble manages to show and laid out the routes tor its railroads, while the interrelationships among the men and to performing routine chores in the improvement create, as he hoped to do, a sense ot the "climate of rivers and harbors to help carry the com of opinion'' of the period discussed. The figure merce of the nation. of the historian Carl Becker also unifies the The importance ot the engineers in opening book. Like a kind ot chorus, Becker speaks first Minnesota is, ot course, recognized by students and last, and hovers in the background through of the state's history.

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