A concise yet thorough repudiation of the history and folklore written by a Pennsylvania luminary.
A historian debunks the works of a 20th-century folklorist in this biography.
Henry Wharton Shoemaker was a man who wore many hats. Born in New York City to a railroad magnate and financier, Shoemaker in his adult life was tied closely to Pennsylvania, where he served as one of the state’s leading conservationists, historians, and folklorists throughout the first half of the 20th century. He was also, according to Graybill, one of the great “facile liars” in America’s “literary legions.” Indeed, the author’s motivations for writing this biography are explicitly to “debunk Shoemaker’s work” and expose his “lack of integrity and his willingness to stray as far as he wished from the honest presentation of Pennsylvania’s history.” While providing a succinct overview of Shoemaker’s life, the book focuses on his written record and efforts to popularize Pennsylvania’s folklore. Through a careful consideration of reputable scholarship on the Keystone State’s history and an examination of the dubious sources listed in the folklorist’s writings, this book systematically and convincingly exposes Shoemaker’s unsavory narratives. Particularly egregious was Shoemaker’s proclivity to falsify Indigenous history, creating stories about Native American princesses, chiefs, and wars that were imaginary. So brazen was the folklorist that many of his writings defied science in his claims of nonexistent underwater rivers and impossibly large wolf packs. A former history teacher and author of multiple books on Pennsylvania history, Graybill does not hold back in his critiques of Shoemaker, whose shoddy scholarship is rightfully treated as an affront to the profession and the state. In doing so, the author also offers readers an engaging, scholarly approach to the state’s history that is complemented by an ample assortment of photographs, paintings, and newspaper clippings germane to Shoemaker’s life and lore. In addition to discrediting Shoemaker, the book adds to readers’ historical understanding of his life by utilizing private archival materials now possessed by the folklorist’s distant cousins. The volume’s appendix contains a heretofore unpublished work, perhaps “Shoemaker’s last literary effort,” that, unsurprisingly, revels in sex, gore, and Native American ghosts.
A concise yet thorough repudiation of the history and folklore written by a Pennsylvania luminary.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2022
ISBN: 9798888190043
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Catamount Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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