Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology

361 Pages·2010·8.78 MB·English

by  M. Thomas Inge

Praise for Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology
“Inge and Piacentino’s new collection, Southern Frontier Humor, brings
forth a number of significant finds among humor writers of the Old
Southwest. Just as exciting is the thoughtful introduction, couched in
plain language, which shifts the focus of this collection more toward
the literary aspects of the tradition, acknowledging debts to European
sources and taking the authors as conscious writers rather than stodgy
gentlemen-authors disparaging the lower classes. This approach makes
real sense and continuity out of Southern Frontier humor as part of a
larger literary stream. Several pieces from the Crockett Almanacs, in-
cluding four representing women as central figures, make the point that
this is literature as well as social commentary and females as well as
males can show up as primary actors. This anthology is a valuable col-
lection of the old and the new, and, helpfully, is just the right size for
classroom use.”
—David E. E. Sloane, author of Mark Twain as a Literary
Comedian and New Directions in American Humor
“Necessarily shaped by the efforts of earlier scholars, this new anthol-
ogy of humor out of the frontier South preserves the familiar names of
nineteenth-century vernacular masters, even as it liberally expands the
canon of what editors Inge and Piacentino beautifully argue is trans-
gressive writing, ‘the dominant strain of American humor.’ Southern
Frontier Humor, a rich repository of sketches by twenty-five hands, is a
collection that reflects the varied investigative work of the past quarter-
century—the tracking-down of little-known and forgotten authors in
the newspaper fraternity that took its pleasure in vernacular writing,
as well as interpretations of the writing by critics in assorted cultural
disciplines. For teachers and students in the oncoming years, this an-
thology will become the most useful and reliable textual resource. Its
bibliography alone, a convenience that some humor buffs might resist,
guarantees that Inge and Piacentino are already the go-to guides for the
twenty-first century.”
—James H. Justus, author of Fetching the Old Southwest:
Humorous Writing from Longstreet to Twain
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“Throughout the volume, [the editors’] shrewd judgment and criti-
cal acumen are apparent, and the reader of this volume comes away with
a balanced sense of both the range and the accomplishment of frontier
humorists.”
—Scott Romine, author of The Real South: Southern
Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction
“Scholars of American humor cannot fail to be intrigued and informed
by this collection, which offers a new configuration of best writers from
a fascinating era of our literary history. Teachers whose American litera-
ture or American studies courses include the antebellum period should
consider this excellent anthology as a textbook.”
—James E. Caron, author of Mark Twain,
Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter
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S o u t h e r n
Frontier Humor
An Anthology
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S o u t h e r n

Frontier Humor
An Anthology
Edited by
M. Thomas Inge and Ed Piacentino
University of Missouri Press Columbia and London

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Copyright © 2010 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Southern frontier humor : an anthology / edited by M. Thomas Inge and Ed
Piacentino.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8262-1886-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Southwest, Old—Literary collections. 2. American literature—Southwest,
Old. 3. American wit and humor—Southwest, Old. 4. Southwest, Old—Humor.
I. Inge, M. Thomas. II. Piacentino, Edward J., 1945-
PS566.S48 2010
810.8’0976—dc22
2010013725
This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Design and composition: Jennifer Cropp
Printing and binding: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Typefaces: Minion, ReturnTo Earth, and Handwriting - Dakota
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DEDERCATED
WIF THE SYMPERTHYS OVE THE ORTHUR,
TU THE MAN UR ‘OMAN, HUEVER THEY BE,
WHAT DON’T READ THIS YERE BOOK.

—Sut Lovingood, Yarns, 1867

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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Note on the Texts xiii
Introduction: The Humor of the Old South; or, Transgression He Wrote 1
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet 25
Georgia Theatrics 26
The Horse-Swap 28
The Fight 34
Solomon Franklin Smith 43
A Tennessee Door-Keeper 44
The Consolate Widow 46
Speculation in Whiskers 47
An Unfinished Obituary 50
Charles F. M. Noland 52
Pete Whetstone’s Bear Hunt 53
Pete Whetstone’s Last Frolic 54
Pete Whetstone and the Mail Boy 56
William Tappan Thompson 57
The Major in an Embarrassing Situation 58
The Christmas Present in a Bag 62
The Runaway Match; or How the Schoolmaster Master Married a Fortune 65

George Washington Harris 70
Sut Lovingood’s Daddy, Acting Horse 71
Parson John Bullen’s Lizards 75
Sut Lovingood Reports What Bob Dawson Said, After Marrying a Substitute 81
Well! Dad’s Dead 85
vii
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