BOOK REVIEWS
Jonathan Draws the Long Bow. By Richard M. Dorson.
(Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University
Press, 1946. 274p.
$4.50.)
This reviewer used to enjoy the old
story told in Licking
County, of how a remarkable providence
once saved a sleepy pio-
neer resident of Granville from drowning
in the rampaging waters
of Raccoon Creek. The villager drove
into town late one pitch-
dark, stormy night, and did not learn
until the next day that the
planking of the bridge he crossed had
been washed away by the
high waters. While his horse had swum
the flood, his carriage
had been kept from being swept down
stream merely because its
wheels had happened to ride safely
across on the stringers.
Now comes Professor Richard Dorson's
fine study of New
England popular tales and legends to
suggest that perhaps the
Licking countian's narrow escape was not
so unusual after all,
for was not Granville one of New
England's provincial capitals
in the West, and did not remarkable
providences follow God-
fearing Yankees wherever they went? Anyhow, the bridge-
stringer salvation has been set down as
local history in many a
New England neighborhood. Dr. Dorson has
found it in Mont-
pelier, Vermont, in Newburyport and
Great Barrington, Massa-
chusetts, in Henniker, New Hampshire,
and in Parsonfield, Maine.
Doubtless it graces the traditional
biography of many another
early citizen in the oral traditions of
other communities.
Then--to go back to Licking
County--there was the oft-told
anecdote of two well-known Alexandria
residents who, having
been too long and too freely in their
cups, were walking home the
six-mile stretch from Granville late on
another dark night. Sud-
denly, as they approached the swampy
flats just east of their
village, they heard deep, sepulchral
warning voices: "Better go
'round! Better go 'round!" The
treacherous mudholes of the
flats were well known. To befuddled foot
travelers on a dark
night, the warning was terrifying. There
was nothing else to do
451
452 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
but return the four or five miles to the
intersection with the
Worthington road and make an additional
eight-mile detour home.
They staggered in the next morning
weary, if not a bit wiser,
from having been victims of the
bullfrogs along the Alexandria
flats.
Although the Alexandria frogs easily
find companion prank-
sters in folk tales of all ages, it is a
joy now to learn from Pro-
fessor Dorson of what is probably their
direct New England
provenience in the frogs of Windham,
Connecticut, or of North-
ampton and Hadley, Massachusetts, or of
numerous other Yankee
communities where sleepy or rum-dulled
citizens in various times
and ways suffered, if not from actual
frogs, at least from a folk
tale that was too good ever to lie
quiescent very long.
Since in Ohio New England made its
largest plantations in
the West, and since Ohio in turn derived
a major substratum of
its original culture from the Yankees,
Mr. Dorson's survey of the
popular tale in Down East folk thought
becomes at once a basic
work for any study of the same element
in Middle Western com-
munity legendry. The book is by no means
exhaustive, but it is
the best systematic sampling and
analysis of this fertile folk side
of New England imagination that has so
far reached print.
After a pleasant general chapter on the
nature and function
of Yankee story-telling, Dr. Dorson
examines with rich detail (1)
supernatural stories about marvels and
prodigies, witches and
wizards, the Devil, specters, and
apparitions; (2) Yankee yarns
about greenhorns, tricksters, and
"originals"; (3) tall tales of
local Munchausens, hunting and fishing,
strong men, and sea ser-
pents; (4) local legends of Indian
tragedies, haunts, buried treas-
ure, and place names; and (5) literary
folk tales such as those
set down by John G. C. Brainerd, J. G.
Whittier, Daniel P.
Thompson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rowland
E. Robinson, Hol-
man F. Day, George S. Wasson, Robert P.
Tristram Coffin, and
Walter Hard. There is a good note on the
author's sources,
which were found largely in old
newspapers, magazines, almanacs,
joke-books, booklets, town histories,
and the other local miscella-
nies. Very wisely Dr. Dorson went to
printed rather than merely
oral sources, for though narrow purists
have sometimes insisted
BOOK REVIEWS 453
upon present-day recording from oral
transmission as a guarantee
of folk authenticity, in literate New
England the printed page was
a culture continuum even on the level of
the popular mind from
the very earliest years of the colonies.
In Ohio excellent examples
of the same mingling of printed record
and popular traditions can
be found in Howe's Historical
Collections and in the county
histories that have multiplied since
1850.
It is a virtue of such studies that they
stir the careful reader
to recall much else that might have been
included. Literary
students, for instance, will wish for
some accounting of the Wan-
dering Jew motif that showed up in
William Austin's famous
"Peter Rugg" tale. Austin's
story, whether original with him or
not, broke away from his authorship and
circulated as a popular
wonder tale. It was certainly so read in
Ohio, for this reviewer
has seen it as a cheap thriller pamphlet
printed in Cincinnati with
Austin's story in augmented form retold
anonymously as fact.
There is the Great Carbuncle theme too.
Hawthorne did not
invent it. Dorson tells the story of
Carbuncle Pond and Hill in
Coventry, Rhode Island. But there are
other reflections of the
marvelous stone in Yankee chronicles,
such as that in David
Wilder's History of Leominster (1853).
Dorson's book will be an efficient
starting tool for students
of Middle Western culture who wish to
tackle the almost un-
touched riches of the popular tale as a
shaping influence both in
the creation of local traditions (often
recorded as local history)
and in regional literature of such
various writers as Howells or
Mark Twain, Eggleston, Riley or
Catherwood, Jake Falstaff or
Louis Bromfield.
ROBERT PRICE
Professor of English
Otterbein College
Sassafras Hill: A Novel. By Charles Allen Smart. (New
York, Random House, 1947. 246p.
$2.50.)
Just released from service in the navy,
Easterner David Mc-
Dermott, an ex-advertising man and
ex-husband but a potential
454
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
artist, is fascinated by the rolling
landscape as his train crosses
southern Ohio. He likes the
"wall-edge of a woodland, cresting
a green hill, . . . the cornfields, the
muddy streams with their
cottonwoods and sycamores, the scattered
wooden buildings, old
and new, the blatant sign-boards, and
the lights that began to
appear boldly in the farm-houses. . .
." It looked "free, peaceful,
and hit-and-miss. It looked like
home."
He detrains, consequently, at
Massietown, a paper-mill city
and agricultural center of about 20,000,
and in a few weeks is
launched upon an experiment in turning
the former sailor and
maladjusted family man into an artist
and happy human being.
The attempt involves much more than
painting and drawing.
David soon finds himself hired out as
general manservant to Mrs.
Ariane Brown, personable and intelligent
widow of an LST com-
mander killed by a buzzbomb in the
Thames. Ariane is also try-
ing to pull life together again and to
rear her three children by
managing the old family farm at
Sassafras Hill.
David's and Ariane's combined problems
in adjustment and
the solution they find furnish Charles
Allen Smart with the plot
for his latest novel, a charmingly
jolting book that is his best
work since R. F. D. (1938).
David McDermott finds in this Ohio farm
neighborhood not
only his true vocation and a congenial
social environment but all
the particular emotional adjustments
that leave him and the reader
convinced on page 246 that civilian
living is going to be pretty
much worth while for all the major
characters in the story.
In spite of this romantic framework,
however, Mr. Smart
has told his tale chiefly in the manner
of a critical realist. He has
apparently enjoyed reading Henry James
some time or other, and
James would enjoy some things in Sassafras
Hill. Even though
the author shows his preoccupation with
the Ohio scene, he man-
ages to tell his story chiefly about
people--very alert, modern
people who have been around. He shows
how they can feel and
think, not just in a provincial Buckeye
environment but in a
shaken, uncertain, cynic-creating modern
world. Regional color,
consequently, is not
over-sentimentalized or grotesqued, but
merely serves as a foil for people and
their relationships.
BOOK REVIEWS 455
Some readers may feel that there are
some conventional
touches. The leading personalities
appear to be the rather hard,
brittle post-war types that we came to
recognize as standard stock
after World War I. But the similarity is
only on the surface--
these folks are still salvageable.
Furthermore the surface shines
with pleasant polish. Like all well-made
characters of the war-
touched generation, their passing
conversations jump quickly and
lightly, for example, to beds and
cocktails, though nothing happens
that even a pre-1914 Victorian can blink
at, and does so in such a
way that the reader knows he has never
got very far away from
Dante, Thomas Nashe's Jack Wilton, the
Satyricon of Petronius
Arbiter, or William Bolitho.
In the background are the Ohio hills and
corn bottoms, typ-
ical farm routines, party lines, country
gossip, and county fairs.
But these never take over the story.
Smart evidently tried to set
a realistic, sophisticatedly mundane
story down in a typical Ohio
farm neighborhood. Except for some
sentimental touches over
old landed families and the wholesome
redeeming influences of
the country, he managed to stick
consistently to his job.
No other Middle Western novel to date
has quite the same
stirring of current sophistication into
authentic regional color.
Most readers should find the resulting
flavor pleasant, even though
the more sentimental may feel that they
taste something a bit
stronger than sassafras tea at Sassafras
Hill.
ROBERT PRICE
Professor of English
Otterbein College
Paul Dunbar and His Song. By Virginia Cunningham.
(New York, Dodd, Mead & Company,
1947. ix + 283p., biblio.
$2.75.)
This life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the
Negro poet from
Dayton, Ohio, who rose from poverty to
fame through the beauty
and appeal of his writings, has been
written by another native of
Dayton, who is, herself, a writer of
children's books. Although
Dunbar lived briefly in Chicago, Denver,
and Washington, D. C.,
456 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
it was to Dayton he always returned, and
it was here he died in
1906, of tuberculosis, at the age of 35.
Earning a livelihood through poetry is
in itself a difficult
task, made infinitely harder if one is a
Negro. However, Dunbar
received sympathy and financial aid from
a number of white
admirers of his work, including Mrs.
Frank Conover of Dayton,
Dr. James N. Matthews, a writer from
Mason, Illinois, Charles
Thatcher, a lawyer of Toledo, Ohio, and
Dr. Henry A. Tobey,
head of the Toledo State Hospital. He was encouraged and
praised, too, by such writers as James
Whitcomb Riley and Wil-
liam Dean Howells. In fact, during the
time in which he wrote,
his books, Oak and Ivy, Majors and
Minors, and Lyrics of Lowly
Life, brought him nation-wide popularity equal to that of
Eugene
Field and James Whitcomb Riley.
Although Dunbar proved himself a master
of Negro dialect
and humor in verse, his position does
not depend entirely on this
type of writing. In the words of William
Dean Howells, "he is
a real poet whether he speaks a dialect
or writes a language." In
addition to poetry, Dunbar wrote short
stories, novels, and lyrics
for several Broadway musicals, and
though they brought further
popularity, his best work is his poetry.
He came to national
attention first through the pages of
such periodicals as the Century
and Harper's Weekly. His ability
to recite his own work added
to his reputation, and the money
obtained from the lecture plat-
form was sorely needed to keep him out
of debt.
Miss Cunningham has done an excellent
piece of work in
this biography; her sympathetic account
moves swiftly and shows
painstaking research. She interviewed
many of Dunbar's family
and friends, including the famous Ohio
inventor Orville Wright,
who was a classmate of Dunbar's in the
old Central High School
in Dayton. Although this book was
written primarily for young
people, and footnotes were omitted for
this reason, still it seems
regrettable that the conversations are
not documented. There is
only the statement in the preface that
"the conversations and in-
cidents in this story are very largely
based on scrapbooks and on
documents and letters written by Paul
and his mother, or to
them, which are in the Dunbar collection
of the Ohio State
BOOK REVIEWS 457
Archaeological and Historical Society
Museum Library in Co-
lumbus, Ohio, and on the books, music,
and other relics in the
Dunbar House in Dayton, Ohio, which was
bought by the Society
after the death of Matilda Dunbar on
February 24, 1934, and is
now maintained as a public museum for
all to visit." There is a
very thorough bibliography of 16 pages,
but, unfortunately, no
index. But judging the work from the
standpoint of the author's
aim to write a book to interest
"anyone from high school up" it
succeeds admirably. It makes one want to
read a great deal more
of Dunbar's poetry than it is possible
to quote in a short biography.
ELIZABETH C. BIGGERT
Documents Librarian
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society