Joel Chandler Harris: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American writer and journalist (1848–1908)}}

| name image = Joel Chandler Harris ("Uncle Remus").jpg

| birth_date death_date = {{birthdeath date and age|1908|7|3|1848|12|9}}

| birth_place death_place = [[EatontonAtlanta]], Georgia]], United StatesU.S.

| children relations = Julian[[Julia LaRoseCollier Harris]] (daughter-in-law)

| relations signature = [[JuliaJoel CollierChandler Harris]] (daughter-in-law)signature.svg

'''Joel Chandler Harris''' (December 9, 1848 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of [[Uncle Remus]] stories. Born in [[Eatonton, Georgia]], where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years, Harris spent most of his adult life in [[Atlanta]] working as an associate editor at ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|The Atlanta Constitution]]''.

Harris led two professional lives: as the editor and journalist known as Joe Harris, he supported a vision of the [[New South]] with the editor [[Henry W. Grady]] (1880–1889), which stressed regional and racial reconciliation after the [[Reconstruction era]].; Asas Joel Chandler Harris, fiction writer and folklorist, he wrote many '[[Brer Rabbit]]' stories from the [[African-American]] oral tradition.

Joel Chandler Harris was born in [[Eatonton, Georgia]], in 1848 to Mary Ann Harris, an [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrant. His father, whose identity remains unknown, abandoned Mary Ann and the infant shortly after hisHarris' birth. The parents had never married; the boy was named Joel after his mother's attending physician, Dr. Joel Branham. Chandler was the name of his mother's uncle.<ref name="brasch">[[#Brasch|Brasch]]</ref> Harris remained self-conscious of his illegitimate birth throughout his life.<ref name="bryson">{{cite book | last = Bryson | first = Bill | title = Mother Tongue: English and How It Got that Way | publisher = Harper Perennial | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-380-71543-0 }}</ref>

A prominent physician, Dr. Andrew Reid, gave the Harris family a small cottage to use behind his mansion. Mary Harris worked as a seamstress and helped neighbors with their gardening to support herself and her son. She was an avid reader and instilled in her son a love of language: "My desire to write—to give expression to my thoughts—grew out of hearing my mother read ''[[The Vicar of Wakefield]]''."<ref>Harris, Joel Chandler. "The Accidental Author,", ''Lippencot's Magazine'', April 1886, p. 418.</ref>

Dr. Reid also paid for Harris' school tuition for several years. In 1856, Joe Harris briefly attended Kate Davidson's School for Boys and Girls, but transferred to Eatonton School for Boys later that year. He had an undistinguished academic record and a habit of truancy. Harris excelled in reading and writing, but was mostly known for his pranks, mischief, and sense of humor. Practical jokes helped Harris cloak his shyness and insecurities about his red hair, Irish ancestry, and illegitimacy, leading to both trouble and a reputation as a leader among the older boys.<ref name="bickley">[[#Bickley|Bickley]]</ref>

Joseph Addison Turner shut down ''The Countryman'' in May 1866. Joel Harris left the plantation with worthless [[Confederate States of America dollar|Confederate money]] and very few possessions. He lived for a period at [[The Marshall House (Savannah, Georgia)|The Marshall House]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/travel/escapes/in-savannah-ga.html?searchResultPosition=2 In Savannah, Ga.] - ''[[New York Times]]'', November 19, 2004</ref>

''[[The Macon Telegraph]]'' hired Harris as a typesetter later that year. Harris found the work unsatisfactory and himself the butt of jokes around the office, in no small part due to his red hair. Within five months, he accepted a job working for the ''New Orleans Crescent Monthly'', a literary journal. Just six months after that, homesick, he returned to Georgia, but with another opportunity at the ''Monroe Advertiser'', a weekly paper published in [[Forsyth, Georgia]].

At the ''Advertiser'' Harris found a regional audience with his column "Affairs of Georgia." Newspapers across the state reprinted his humorous paragraphs and political barbs. Harris' reputation earned him the position of associate editor at the ''[[Savannah Morning News]]'', the largest circulation newspaper in Georgia. Though he relished his position in Forsyth, Joe Harris accepted the $40-a-week job, a significant pay increase, and quickly established himself as Georgia's leading humor columnist while at the ''Morning News''.

In 1872 Harris met Mary Esther LaRose, a seventeen-year-old [[French-Canadian]] from Quebec. After a year of courtship, Harris and LaRose married in April 1873. LaRose was 18, and Harris 27 (though publicly admitting to 24). Over the next three years, the couple had two children. Their life in Savannah came to an abrupt halt, however, when they fled to Atlanta to avoid a [[yellow fever]] epidemic.<ref>[[#Brasch|Brasch]], 23–33</ref>

In addition, he published local-color stories in magazines such as ''[[Scribner's Monthly|Scribner's]]'', ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]'', and ''[[Century Magazine|The Century]]''.<ref name="Bickley, 38"/>

Harris preferred to write at the Wren's Nest. He published prodigiously throughout the 1880s and 1890s, trying his hand at novels, children's literature, and a translation of French folklore. Yet he rarely strayed from home and work during this time. He chose to stay close to his family and his gardening. Harris and his wife Essie had seven more children in Atlanta, with a total of six (out of nine) surviving past childhood.

Harris retired from the ''Constitution'' in 1900. He continued experimenting with novels and wrote articles for outlets such as ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''. Still, he remained close to home, refusing to travel to accept honorary degrees from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and Emory College (now [[Emory University]]).{{clarify |date=June 2017 |reason=odd comparison, as UP was 800 miles away but Emory only 37 miles}} In 1905 Harris was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]].

Harris traveled to accept an invitation to the White House by [[Theodore Roosevelt|President Theodore Roosevelt]]. Two years earlier, Roosevelt had said, "Presidents may come and presidents may go, but Uncle Remus stays put. Georgia has done a great many things for the Union, but she has never done more than when she gave Mr. Joel Chandler Harris to American literature."<ref>[[#Bickley|Bickley]], 59.</ref>

On July 3, 1908, Joel Chandler Harris died of acute [[nephritis]] and complications from [[cirrhosis]] of the liver. In his obituary, the ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' echoed Roosevelt's sentiment, stating: "Uncle Remus cannot die. Joel Chandler Harris has departed this life at the age of 60 ... but his best creation, [Uncle Remus] with his fund of folk-lore, will live in literature."<ref>"Uncle Remus." ''Saturday Review of Books,'' the ''The New York Times.'' July 11, 1908.</ref>

Remus' stories featured a [[trickster]] [[hero]] called [[Br'er Rabbit]] (Brother Rabbit), who used his wits against adversity, though his efforts did not always succeed. Br'er Rabbit is a direct interpretation of [[Yoruba religion|Yoruba tales]] of Hare, though some others posit Native American influences as well.<ref>Weaver, Jace (1997) ''That the People Might Live : Native American Literatures and Native American Community''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0195344219}}. p. 4</ref><ref>[http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/african-mythology.php?deity=HARE Hare: Infamous Trickster God]. godchecker.com</ref> The scholar Stella Brewer Brookes asserts, "Never has the trickster been better exemplified than in the Br'er Rabbit of Harris."<ref>Brookes, Stella Brewer (1950). ''Joel Chandler Harris: Folklorist''. University of Georgia Press. p. 63.</ref> Br'er Rabbit was accompanied by friends and enemies, such as Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, Br'er Terrapin, and Br'er Wolf. The stories represented a significant break from the [[fairy tale]]s of the Western tradition: instead of a singular event in a singular story, the critters on the plantation existed in an ongoing community saga, time immemorial.<ref>[[#Goldthwaite|Goldthwaite]], 282</ref>

The Uncle Remus stories garnered critical acclaim and achieved popular success well into the 20th century. Harris published at least twenty-nine books, of which nine books were compiled of his published Uncle Remus stories, including ''[[Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings]]'' (1880), ''Nights with Uncle Remus'' (1883), ''Uncle Remus and His Friends'' (1892), ''The Tar Baby and Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus'' (1904), ''[[Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation]]'' (1905), ''Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit'' (1907). The last three books written by Joel Chandler Harris were published after his death which included ''Uncle Remus and the Little Boy'' (1910), ''Uncle Remus Returns'' (1918), and ''Seven Tales of Uncle Remus'' (1948). The tales, 185 in sum, became immensely popular among both black and white readers in the North and South. Few people outside of the South had heard accents like those spoken in the tales, and the dialect had never been legitimately and faithfully recorded in print. To Northern and international readers, the stories were a "revelation of the unknown."<ref>Brookes, Stella Brewer (1950). ''Joel Chandler Harris: Folklorist''. University of Georgia Press. p. 43</ref> [[Mark Twain]] noted in 1883, "in the matter of writing [the African-American dialect], he is the only master the country has produced."<ref>Twain, Mark (2000) ''Life on the Mississippi.'' Dover. {{ISBN|0-486-41426-4}}. p. 210.</ref>

The stories introduced international readers to the American South. [[Rudyard Kipling]] wrote in a letter to Harris that the tales "ran like wild fire through an English Public school. ... [We] found ourselves quoting whole pages of Uncle Remus that had got mixed in with the fabric of the old school life."<ref>Kipling, Rudyard (December 6, 1895). Letter to Joel Chandler Harris.</ref> The Uncle Remus tales have since been translated into more than forty languages.

Harris's editorials were often progressive in content and paternalistic in tone. He was committed to the "dissipation of sectional jealousy and misunderstanding, as well as religious and racial intolerance",<ref>Odum, Howard (1925) ''Southern Pioneers in Social Interpretation'', University of North Carolina Press. p. 153</ref> yet "never entirely freed himself of the idea that the [southern whites] would have to patronize the [southern blacks]."<ref name=Bickley2/>

Harris also oversaw some of ''The Atlanta Constitution''{{'}}s most sensationalized coverage of racial issues, including the 1899 torture and [[lynching]] of [[Sam Hose]], an African-American farm worker. Harris resigned from the paper the following year, having lost patience for publishing both "his iconoclastic views on race" and "what was expected of him" at a major southern newspaper during a particularly vitriolic period.<ref>Martin, Jay (1981) "Joel Chandler Harris and the Cornfield Journalist,", pp. 92–97 in ''Crititcal Essays on Joel Chandler Harris'' Boston: G.K. Hall. {{ISBN|0816183813}}.</ref>

Harris wrote novels, narrative histories, translations of French folklore, children's literature, and collections of stories depicting rural life in Georgia. The short stories "[[Free Joe and the Rest of the World]]", "Mingo", and "At Teague Poteets" are the most influential of his non-Uncle Remus creative work. Many of his short stories delved into the changing social and economic values in the South during Reconstruction. Harris's turn as a local colorist gave voice to poor white characters and demonstrated his fluency with different African-American dialects and characters.<ref>[[#Bickley|Bickley]], 104–105</ref>

Harris's legacy has largely been ignored by academia, in part due to the [[Uncle Remus]] character, use of dialect, and plantation setting. Harris's books exerted a profound influence on storytellers at home and abroad, yet the Uncle Remus tales effectively have no critical standing.<ref name="Goldthwaite, 256">[[#Goldthwaite|Goldthwaite]], 256</ref> His legacy is, at the same time, not without considerable controversy: Harris's critical reputation in the 20th and 21st centuriesCenturies has been wildly mixed, as hesome wasaccused accusedhim of appropriating African-American culture.

Keith Cartwright, however, asserts, "Harris might arguably be called the greatest single authorial force behind the literary development of African American folk matter and manner."<ref name="cartwright">[[Joel Chandler Harris#Cartwright|Cartwright]], xiv126</ref>

Scholars have questioned histhe collectionauthenticity of storieshis main works, citing the difficulty that many white folklorists had in persuading African Americans to divulge their folklore.<ref name="levin">{{cite book | last = Levine | first = Lawrence | title = Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom | url = https://archive.org/details/blackcultureblac00levi | url-access = registration | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1977 | isbn = 0-19-502374-9 }}</ref> But, others note the similarity of African folk stories in several sources that are similar to the Brer Rabbit tales as published, which represent a folk genre. Examples include the [[Ila language]] ''Sulwe mbwakatizha Muzovu'' ("Hare makes the elephant afraid") in Smith & Dale ''The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia'' volume 2, page 309.<ref>1920, reprinted 1968 by University Books, New Hyde Park, New York. Also note the 14 examples of tales translated into English where Sulwe, the Hare, is the mischievous main character, volume 2, page 375ff.</ref> In the totally unrelated [[Kanuri people|Kanuri]] or Bornuese culture in Northern Nigeria, such tales as a ''Fable of Jackal and a Hyena''<ref>Sigismund Koelle, ''African Native Literature'', London, 1854, reprinted by Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, New York, 1970. page 162.</ref> display similar themes quite in the Brer Rabbit manner. The difficulties in obtaining printed sources on the African languages may have inhibited these aspects of critical treatment. Some critical scholars cite Uncle Remus as a problematic and contradictory figure: sometimes a mouthpiece for white paternalism, sometimes a stereotype of the black entertainer, and sometimes poetically subversive.<ref name="sundquist">{{cite book | last = Sundquist | first = Eric | title = To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature | url = https://archive.org/details/towakenationsrac00sund | url-access = registration | publisher = Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-674-89331-X }}</ref>

[[Julius Lester]], a black folklorist and university professor, sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black [[folklore]]. He has rewritten many of the Harris stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones. Regarding the nature of the Uncle Remus character, Lester said,

Some 21st-century scholars have argued that the Uncle Remus tales satirized the very "plantation school" that some readers believed his work supported. Critic Robert Cochran noted: "Harris went to the world as the trickster Brer Rabbit, and in the trickster Uncle Remus he projected both his sharpest critique of things as they were and the deepest image of his heart's desire."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Cochran, Robert|title=Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris |journal=African American Review|year= 2004|volume= 38|issue=1|pages=21–34|doi=10.2307/1512229 |jstor=1512229}}</ref> Harris omitted the Southern plantation house, disparaged the white Southern gentleman, and presented [[miscegenation]] in positive terms. He violated social codes and presented an ethos that would have otherwise shocked his reading audience.<ref>Pamplin, Claire (2006). "Plantation Makeover: Joel Chandler Harris's Myths and Violations", pp. 33–51 in ''The great American makeover: television, history, nation''. Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|1403974845}}.</ref> These recent acknowledgements echo early observations from [[Walter Hines Page]], who wrote in 1884 that Harris "hardly conceals his scorn for the old aristocracy" and makes "a sly thrust at the pompous life of the Old South."<ref>Hendrick, Burton J., ed. (1928). ''The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, 1855–1913''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>

More recently, the scholars [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]] and [[Maria Tatar]] debated whether to include Uncle Remus stories in their 2017 volume, ''The Annotated African American Folktales''.<ref name="The Annotated African American Folktales (The Annotated Books) - Google Books">{{cite book |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis |last2=Tatar |first2=Maria |title=The Annotated African American Folktales (The Annotated Books) |date=2017 |publisher=Liveright |isbn=9780871407566 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ITtbDgAAQBAJ&q=slavery}}</ref> Ultimately they decided on inclusion, along with a detailed preface on the critical issues surrounding Harris, race, and cultural appropriation.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2017/11/10/563110377/annotated-african-american-folktales-reclaims-stories-passed-down-from-slavery ''Annotated African American Folktales Reclaims Stories Passed Down From Slavery '']</ref>

[[Beatrix Potter]] illustrated eight scenes from the Uncle Remus stories between 1893 and 1896, coinciding with her first drawings of [[Peter Rabbit]]. Potter's family had favored the Uncle Remus stories during her youth, and she was particularly impressed by the way Harris turned "the ordinary into the extraordinary." Potter borrowed some of the language from the Uncle Remus stories, adopting the words: "cottontail,", "puddle-duck,", and "lippity-(c)lippity" into her own work.<ref>Lear, Linda (2008) ''Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature'', Macmillan. {{ISBN|0312377967}}. p. 131.</ref>

[[Mark Twain]] incorporated several of the Uncle Remus stories into readings during his book tour. He wrote to [[William Dean Howells]] in the early 1880s, reporting that the "Tar Baby" had been received "best of all" at a reading in Hartford.<ref>Griska, Joseph M. (1977) ''Two New Joel Chandler Harris Reviews of Mark Twain''. Duke University Press. p. 584.</ref> Twain admired Harris' use of dialect. He appropriated exchanges and turns of phrase in many of his works, most notably in ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]''<ref>Carkeet, David (1981) "The Source for the Arkansas Gossips in Huckleberry Finn,", pp. 90–92 in ''American Literary Realism,'' XIV.</ref> and ''[[The Mysterious Stranger]]''.<ref>McCoy, Sharon D. (1994) ''The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language, and Twentieth Century Literature''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0195122917}}. p. 77.</ref>

[[A.A. Milne]] borrowed diction, plot, and narrative structure from several Brer Rabbit stories. "Pooh Goes Visiting" and "Heyo, House!" are particularly similar.<ref name="Goldthwaite, 256"/> As a boy, Milne recalled listening to his father read one Uncle Remus story per night, and referred to it as "the sacred book."<ref>Wachtell, Cynthia (2009) "The Wife of His Youth: A Trickster Tale,", p. 170 in ''Charles Chesnutt Reappraised: Essays on the First Major African American Fiction Writer''. North Carolina: McFarland and Company. {{ISBN|0786480017}}.</ref>

Poets [[Ezra Pound]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] corresponded in Uncle Remus-inspired dialect, referring to themselves as "Brer Rabbit" and "Old Possum,", respectively. Eventually the dialect and the personae became a sign of their collaboration against the London literary establishment. Eliot titled one of his books ''[[Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats]]''.<ref name="minstrelmask"/>

In 1946, [[theThe Walt Disney Company]] produced a film based on the [[Uncle Remus]] tales called ''[[Song of the South]]''. While commercially successful during its original release and re-releases, the film has never been released for home consumption in the United States as, since its release, the film was criticized for the way it portrays its characters and the Southern U. S. in regard to slavery, even though the film's events take place in the postbellum South, when slavery had ended. ''Song of the South'' has been released on video in a number of overseas markets, and on LaserDisc in Japan.<ref name="video">{{cite web|url=http://www.songofthesouth.net/ |title=Dedicated to This Walt Disney Classic |publisher=Song of the South.net |access-date=April 28, 2014}}</ref>

The film earned mixed critical reviews and two Academy Awards. [[James Baskett]] won an honorary [[Academy Award]] for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, and "[[Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah]]" was presented with the award for [[Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song]]. [[Walter Francis White|Walter White]] of the [[NAACP]] acknowledged "the remarkable artistic merit" of the film in his telegraphed press release on November 27, 1946, but decried the "impression it gives of an idyllic master-slave relationship."<ref name="Cohen">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Karl F|title=Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America|year=1997|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|location=North Carolina|isbn=0-7864-0395-0|pages=60–68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hp3WAAAAMAAJ&q=artistic+merit}}</ref>

* A state historic landmark plaque was erected in [[Forsyth, GA]] on Main Street at N 33° 2.057', W 83° 56.354'. The plaque reads: One block east stood the old office of The Monroe Advertiser, where Joel Chandler Harris, creator of "Uncle Remus,", came in 1867, as a boy of nineteen, to work until 1870. Here he advanced from printer's devil to accomplished journalist. Of his duties, Harris said: "I set all the type, pulled the press, kept the books, swept the floor and wrapped the papers for mailing." His typestand is still in use at the present office of [[The Monroe Advertiser]].

* {{cite book |ref=Cartwright| last = Cartwright | first = Keith | title = Reading Africa into American Literature: Epics, Fables, and Gothic Tales | publisher = University of LexingtonKentucky Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-8131-9089-4}}

* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-525&sug=y Joel Chandler Harris] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531211240/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-525&sug=y |date=May 31, 2013 }}, New Georgia Encyclopedia

* [http://www.wrensnestonline.com The Wren's Nest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326080638/http://www.wrensnestonline.com/ |date=March 26, 2012 }}, Harris's historic home in Atlanta, GA

* {{Gutenberg author |id=Harris,+Joel+Chandler 868| name=Joel Chandler Harris}}

* [http://atlnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers/view?docId=news/aga1908/aga1908-2345.xml "Death Calls 'Uncle Remus' and Whole World Mourns"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305152007/http://atlnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers/view?docId=news/aga1908/aga1908-2345.xml |date=March 5, 2012 }}, Atlanta Georgian, July 4, 1908. From the [http://atlnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers/search Atlanta Historic Newspaper Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410213029/http://atlnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers/search |date=April 10, 2010 }}