American Folkways series
The American Folkways is a 28-volume series of books, initiated and principally edited by Erskine Caldwell, and published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce from 1941 to 1955.[1] Each book focused on a different region, or "folkway", of the United States, including documentary essays and folklore from that region.[2] The books were written by local experts, describing "their" region.[3] Many of the individual volumes have become regarded as classics in folklore, local history, and American writing, and a number of them have been issued in multiple editions or are still in print.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Blue_Ridge_Country_-_Jean_Thomas_-_book_cover.jpg/220px-Blue_Ridge_Country_-_Jean_Thomas_-_book_cover.jpg)
Caldwell initiated the series after returning to the United States from reporting on the German invasion of Russia.[4] He had conceived of the series while in Europe, imagining an Americana regional series in which regionalists would "describe and interpret the indigenous quality of life".[5] His proposal was rejected by editors Marshall Best and Harold Guinzburg at Viking, but accepted by Charles Duell and Samuel Sloan as a foundational series of their new press, and as an opportunity for their press to acquire Caldwell's future works.[6]
In 1939 he began traversing the country, soliciting authors for the series, and by the end of the year had elicited commitments from five writers.[7] Caldwell ultimately edited 25 volumes of the series (three additional volumes were published), and twenty separate regions were covered by the series.[8] The volumes were intended to focus on cultural regions, not political boundaries.[8] He rejected the term "folklore", choosing instead to use the term "folkways" to reflect "the study of contemporary life in terms of its social and economic implications."[9] Caldwell was a detailed and focused editor, urging writers to hew to his vision – documenting and commenting on particular cultural regions, not sanitizing their subject, but reflective of the author's distinctive voice and regionalist character.[9]
Works in the series[]
- #1 Desert Country by Edwin Corle (1941)
- #3 Short Grass Country by Stanley Vestal (1941)
- #4 Big Country: Texas by Donald Day (1947)
- #8 Palmetto Country by Stetson Kennedy (1942)
- #9 Far North Country by Thames Williamson (1944)
- #13 North Star Country by Meridel Le Sueur (1945)
- # 15 or #16 Lower Piedmont Country: The Uplands of the Deep South by H. C. Nixon and (photographer) (1946)
- #20 Rocky Mountain Country by (1950)
- Piñon Country by Haniel Long (1941)
- Ozark Country by (1941)
- Blue Ridge Country by Jean Thomas (1942)
- Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner (1942)
- High Border Country by (1942)
- Deep Delta Country by (1944)
- Golden Gate Country by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (1945)
- Town Meeting Country by (1945)
- Southern California: An Island on the Land by Carey McWilliams (1946) (Southern California Country)
- Corn Country by Homer Croy (1947)
- Niagara Country by (1949)
- Redwood Country : The Lava Region and the Redwoods by (1949)
- Wheat Country by (1950)
- Pittsylvania Country by (1951)
- Gulf Coast Country by Hodding Carter and (1951)
- Smoky Mountain Country by North Callahan (1952)
- Adirondack Country by William Chapman White (1954)
- High Sierra Country by Oscar Lewis (1955)
- Old Kentucky Country by Clark McMeekin (1957)
- The Other Illinois by Baker Brownell (1958)
Notes[]
- ^ Firsts Magazine, v.8, n.5 (May 1998).
- ^ Sylvia J. Cook, "Modernism from the Bottom Up", pp.56- 76, in Reading Erskine Caldwell: New Essays ed. by Robert L. McDonald (2006).
- ^ William Stott, Documentary Expression and Thirties America (University of Chicago Press, 1973), p.232.
- ^ James Korges, Erskine Caldwell (University of Minnesota Press, 1969), pp.8-9.
- ^ Caldwell, quoted in Harvey L. Klevar, Erskine Caldwell: A Biography, p.219.
- ^ Klevar, pp.219-220; Mixon, p.121.
- ^ Mixon, pp.121-122.
- ^ a b Mixon, p.122.
- ^ a b Mixon, pp.122-123.
References[]
- "American Folkways Series", Firsts Magazine, v.8, n.5 (May 1998)
- Harvey L. Klevar, Erskine Caldwell: A Biography (University of Tennessee Press, 1993)
- Wayne Mixon, The People's Writer: Erskine Caldwell and the South (University of Virginia Press, 1995)
- "American Folkways Series", American Regional Folklore: A Sourcebook and Resource Guide ed. by Terry Ann Mood, pp. 19–20.
- American folklore
- Series of non-fiction books
- 20th-century books
- American non-fiction books
- Duell, Sloan and Pearce books
- Works by Erskine Caldwell
- Literature book stubs