| Ozark Baptizings, Hangings, and Other Diversions: Theatrical Folkways of Rural Missouri, 1885-1910 Revised Edition Contributor(s): Gilmore, Robert K. (Author), Flanders, Robert (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0806122706 ISBN-13: 9780806122700 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $21.73 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 1984 Annotation: "Ozark Batpizings, Hangings, and Other Diversions is a significant work dealing with a little-studied aspect of Ozark and American folk tradition. As such it is of value to folklorists, social and cultural historians, and anthropologists, and will remain so for some time to come. It is well written, superbly researched....What Gilmore does is present the typical in such a way that it is fascinating and, in so doing, tells more about Ozark life than can be found in many far more pretentious volumes."- Journal of Southern History |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Folklore & Mythology - History | United States - State & Local - General |
| Dewey: 977.8 |
| LCCN: 83040324 |
| Physical Information: 0.87" H x 5.46" W x 8.27" (0.83 lbs) 294 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Midwest - Geographic Orientation - Missouri |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Ozark Baptizings, Hangings, and Other Diversions is about the people of a unique corner of America and how they entertained themselves at the turn of the century. In the years from 1885 to 1910 most Ozark communities were still relatively isolated from the outside and from each other. Thus they had to rely on their own resources for diversion from the difficult and often solitary business of everyday living. The most popular of their entertainments were those that brought some theater into their lives. They especially delighted in literaries, debates, mock trials, closing-of-school programs, suppers, picnics, brush-arbor revivals, and baptizings. Then there was the occasional hanging that for audience attention was rivaled only by the political rally. The hanging took on all the flavor of high drama, even to the impassioned farewell address by the condemned, who was carried away by the excitement of it all. By their entertainments shall we know them, and this account of Ozarkers' diversions reveals them in all their independence, conservatism, sense of place, humor, dedication to learning, love of the spoken language, and religious and political intensity. No come-here (an Ozarker's term for a newcomer), Robert K. Gilmore grew up on an Ozark farm, reared by grandparents who were young in the era described in this book. Years later he went back to the rural Ozarks and encouraged the people to recall the early days for him. They described the entertainments of their youth with a special clarity of recall. The files of the Ozark weeklies also proved richly rewarding. The editors and their rural correspondents delighted in describing the local entertainments in vivid reportage loaded with editorial comment. This book, illustrated with rare photographs of turn-of-the-century diversions celebrates the centennial of an era. |
Contributor Bio(s): Gilmore, Robert K.: - ROBERT K. GILMORE, a native of Springfield, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, received the Ph.D. degree in theater from the University of Minnesota. He was Provost and Dean of Faculties in Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield. |