The humor of the Old South—tales, almanac entries, turf reports, historical sketches, gentlemen's essays on outdoor sports, profiles of local characters—flourished between 1830 and 1860. The genre's popularity and influence can be traced in the works of major southern writers such as William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Harry Crews, as well as in contemporary popular culture focusing on the rural South. This collection of essays includes some of the past twenty five years' best writing on the subject, as well as ten new works bringing fresh insights and original approaches to the subject. A number of the essays focus on well known humorists such as Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Johnson Jones Hooper, William Tappan Thompson, and George Washington Harris, all of whom have long been recognized as key figures in Southwestern humor. Other chapters examine the origins of this early humor, in particular selected poems of William Henry Timrod and Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which anticipate the subject matter, character types, structural elements, and motifs that would become part of the Southwestern tradition. Renditions of "Sleepy Hollow" were later echoed in sketches by William Tappan Thompson, Joseph Beckman Cobb, Orlando Benedict Mayer, Francis James Robinson, and William Gilmore Simms. Several essays also explore antebellum southern humor in the context of race and gender. This literary legacy left an indelible mark on the works of later writers such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner, whose works in a comic vein reflect affinities and connections to the rich lode of materials initially popularized by the Southwestern humorists.

Much experience and action, much thought and reminiscence, fill the pages of this volume. Here are books about explorers, frontiersmen, mountaineers, hunters, rangers, gold-finders, cowboys, and tenderfeet; novels and narratives by pioneer women; books by friends and also fighters of Native Americans. Often generously quoted, they pulse with the life of the old West. Albert R. Vogeler, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Fullerton You have the mantle of Henry Wagner, Carl Wheat, and Francis Farquhar on your shoulders. You are to be commended for bringing to life so many of the books that are key to our heritage. Gary F. Kurutz, Curator of Special Collections, California State Library

Bold, talented, and ambitious, Jessie Benton Fremont was one of Victorian America's most controversial women. As the daughter of powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and the wife of John Charles Fremont - western explorer, presidential candidate, and Civil War general - she not only witnessed but struggled to influence many of the major events of her time. Despite the restrictions she faced as a woman, she managed to carve out a vital role for herself as a writer, dedicated abolitionist, and secretary and other self to her mercurial husband. She collaborated on his best-selling exploration reports, served as his behind-the-scenes political advisor and chief Civil War aide, and worked as a lobbyist for Arizona mining interests. In The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont, Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence create a compelling portrait of this remarkable woman. They supplement their collection of 271 fully annotated letters, selected from 800 they uncovered, with an elegant introduction and seven authoritative chapter essays that elucidate the significant periods of her life. The correspondents range from intimate friends like Elizabeth Blair Lee to public figures like Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, William T. Sherman, and Theodore Roosevelt. Readers interested in women's studies, the westward movement, the Civil War, and the Gilded Age will find a rich source in The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont.

The Inside Man is the culmination of more than seventeen years of groundbreaking, meticulous, and exhaustive research into the life of this least known or understood of the "Big Five" who built the western end of the first transcontinental railroad. Drawn from original sources most of which have hitherto been inaccessible or ignored by previous chroniclers-thousands of pages of handwritten letters, telegrams, accounts from scores of newspapers archived around the country, including biographical and historical works-are brought to bear in this monumental account. More than the biography of one individual, this masterful account weaves within the narrative the many forces and competing issues faced by Mark Hopkins and his associates as well as the culture and mores of late nineteenth century California, and their very personal struggles and conflicts.

The 309 letters in this volume, more than half never before published, capture the events in Mark Twain's life in 1872 and 1873 with detailed intimacy. Thoroughly annotated and indexed, they include genealogical charts, transcription of journals, book contracts, photographs, and, of course, all known letters written between 1865 and 1871. This volume is fifth in a series about the renowned author/humorist. 80 illus.

First published in 2000. More than any other occupation, the long history of mining raises issues of class and dependency, of men, women, and children bound to permanent wage work or forced labor underground with small hope of securing an independent living. Like all popular images, perceptions of workers reveal as much about the nature of the dominant culture as about the complex experiences of workers themselves. The main purpose of this study is to document and analyze the development of working-class culture in the mining camps of the American West.

"Eye of the Whale focuses on one great whale in particularthe coastal-traveling California gray whale. Gray whales make the longest migration of any mammal - from the lagoons of Baja California to the feeding grounds of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia (nearly 6,000 miles). That the gray whale exists today is nothing short of miraculous. Whaling fleets twice massacred the species to near extinction - first during the nineteenth century and again during the early part of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This extraordinarily comprehensive, well-documented, biographical dictionary of some 1,500 photographers (and workers engaged in photographically related pursuits) active in western North America before 1865 is enriched by some 250 illustrations. Far from being simply a reference tool, the book provides a rich trove of fascinating narratives that cover both the professional and personal lives of a colorful cast of characters.