Henry W. Shoemaker (1880-1958) was known for his deep love for the wilderness and native cultures of Pennsylvania. The state’s first official folklorist, he wrote more than twenty books detailing Pennsylvania’s modern mythology. Pennsylvania Mountain Stories is perhaps Shoemaker’s definitive collection of folktales.

The idea for this book came to Shoemaker during his college years, when he spent his vacations traveling through the mountains of Pennsylvania—on foot, on horseback, or by buggy. He claimed that he heard the stories, “mostly after supper,” from people he met at lumber camps, farmhouses, and backwoods taverns. “As so many of the tales are devoted to subjects of a more or less supernatural order they cannot very well be true,” he writes, but then hastens to add, “neither are they of the author’s invention.” In this ethereal space between fact and fiction, Pennsylvania Mountain Stories reveals the values, the passions, the obsessions of the people who told them.

This volume, published under the Metalmark Books imprint, contains a facsimile reproduction of the 1911 edition, originally published by the Reading Times Publishing Company.

To view this book online, visit the Penn State University Library's Digital Bookshelf:

http://apps.libraries.psu.edu/digitalbookshelf/bookindex.cfm?oclc=1236568

Metalmark Books
The Penn State University Press is pleased to introduce Metalmark Books, a joint imprint of the Press and the University Libraries at Penn State. Books published under this imprint are selected from the collections of the University Libraries. They may be viewed online or ordered as paperbacks. Initially, books published under the Metalmark imprint will be chosen from the Libraries’ extensive Pennsylvania holdings. Over time, the scope will broaden to include other significant out-of-print titles.

www.libraries.psu.edu

Of related interest:
Popularizing Pennsylvania
Henry W. Shoemaker and the Progressive Uses of Folklore and History
by Simon J. Bronner