Joel Chandler Harris: An American Writer

Born in 1848, Joel Chandler Harris was one of the South's most treasured authors. He ained national prominence for his numerous volumes of Uncle Remus folktales. His many accomplishments include works of journalism, folklore, fiction, and children stories.

His love of books, writing and a sense of humor, earned him a job at sixteen as a printing compositor for Joseph Addison Turner who was then the of 1,000-acre Turnwold Plantation. The semi-restored plantation house and a historical marker commemorating Turner and Harris' years there are located nine miles northeast of Eatonton on Old Phoenix Road.

His full access to Turnwold's slave quarters and to the kitchen, offered him the opportunity to listen to African American animal stories told by Uncle George Terrell, Old Harbert, and Aunt Crissy. These slaves later became models for Uncle Remus, Aunt Tempy, and other figures in the African American animal tales Harris began writing a decade later.

He placed them within a narrative context which made them available to white audiences. His Uncle Remus tales would introduce Americans to the basic patterns and rhythms of southern African-American speech.

In 1881 his first collection of folk poems and proverbs were published as Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings. And later a collection that included Nights with Uncle Remus from 1883, Uncle Remus and His Friends from 1892, and Uncle Remus and the Little Boy from 1905 was also published. The lasting impression of the Remus stories on readers of all ages and from many countries stems from the force of their slave lore.

Mr. Harris's Uncle Remus tales are simultaneously adult folktales and children's literature. He also wrote six volumes of stories for children: Little Mr. Thimblefinger and His Queer Country in 1894 and its sequel, Mr. Rabbit at Home in 1895, The Story of Aaron in 1896 and its companion volume, Aaron in the Wildwoods in 1897, and another tandem set of stories, Plantation Pageants in 1899 and Wally Wanderoon and His Story-Telling Machine in 1903.

Mr. Harris's Uncle Remus tales are simultaneously adult folktales and children's literature. He also wrote six volumes of stories for children: Little Mr. Thimblefinger and His Queer Country in 1894 and its sequel, Mr. Rabbit at Home in 1895, The Story of Aaron in 1896 and its companion volume, Aaron in the Wildwoods in 1897, and another tandem set of stories, Plantation Pageants in 1899 and Wally Wanderoon and His Story-Telling Machine in 1903.

Mr. Harris died on July 3, 1908, of acute nephritis and was buried in Westview Cemetery, West End, Atlanta. Obituary writers were not exaggerating when they eulogized this Georgia writer as "the most beloved man in America."