The Annotated African American Folktales (The Annotated Books)
* Recipient of the 2019 Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award
These nearly 150 African American folktales animate our past and reclaim a lost cultural legacy to redefine American literature.
Drawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, The Annotated African American Folktales revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. Following in the tradition of such classics as Arthur Huff Fauset's "Negro Folk Tales from the South" (1927), Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men (1935), and Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly (1985), acclaimed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalizes a vibrant African American past to produce the most comprehensive and ambitious collection of African American folktales ever published in American literary history. Arguing for the value of these deceptively simple stories as part of a sophisticated, complex, and heterogeneous cultural heritage, Gates and Tatar show how these remarkable stories deserve a place alongside the classic works of African American literature, and American literature more broadly.
Opening with two introductory essays and twenty seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like "The Talking Skull" and "Witches Who Ride," as well as out-of-print tales from the 1890s' Southern Workman. Beginning with the figure of Anansi, the African trickster, master of improvisation―a spider who plots and weaves in scandalous ways―The Annotated African American Folktales then goes on to draw Caribbean and Creole tales into the orbit of the folkloric canon. It retrieves stories not seen since the Harlem Renaissance and brings back archival tales of "Negro folklore" that Booker T. Washington proclaimed had emanated from a "grapevine" that existed even before the American Revolution, stories brought over by slaves who had survived the Middle Passage. Furthermore, Gates and Tatar's volume not only defines a new canon but reveals how these folktales were hijacked and misappropriated in previous incarnations, egregiously by Joel Chandler Harris, a Southern newspaperman, as well as by Walt Disney, who cannibalized and capitalized on Harris's volumes by creating cartoon characters drawn from this African American lore.
Presenting these tales with illuminating annotations and hundreds of revelatory illustrations, The Annotated African American Folktales reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive.
The Annotated African American Folktales includes:
- Introductory essays, nearly 150 African American stories, and 20 seminal African tales as historical background
- The familiar Brer Rabbit classics, as well as news-making vernacular tales from the 1890s' Southern Workman
- An entire section of Caribbean and Latin American folktales that finally become incorporated into the canon
- Approximately 200 full-color, museum-quality images
Reviews (86)
Great value and beautiful book all around.
Really great book. Almost undervalued for the quality you get. Beautiful exterior and interior. Just a really well laid out book. Should be in every black home and school. Great as an heirloom/familial keepsake or coffee table book. Tremendous thought went into it and I appreciate the effort made to make it more affordable for the masses; this could easily be a 40 to 50 dollar book/text.
Wonderful well curated collection of stories
What a wonderful collection of stories. It really gives voice to the african american experience both good and bad. We can't put it down
What A Great Keepsake !!!!!
Applause for Henry Gates ! 👌🏾 Book is a treasure one can pass down to later generations. The stories are great to read during family reunions, thanksgiving etc.
A gem from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
What a gem Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has given us. To know the origin of so many African American Folktales is such a gift. Thanks, Henry!
Important for today’s Black families
Should be on every serious book collectors shelf
Worth a read!
Beautiful copy, great information and compilation!
Annotated African American Folktale Book
Excellent quality; worth the price; strongly recommend.
very interesting and informative. introduction somewhat repetitive and overly ...
very interesting and informative. introduction somewhat repetitive and overly long. enjoying the tales
It was a gift and the recpient was very pleased.
My grandson requested the book for his birthday and he was very excited and very pleased. He is a college student .
I love this book.
I purchased in a store and liked it so much I purchased one for by 72 year old Aunt
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