Books with author Henry W. Shoemaker

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.Metalmark BooksThe 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 print-on-demand 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.The Pennsylvania State University Presswww.psupress.orgThe Pennsylvania State University Librarieswww.libraries.psu.eduUniversity Park, Pennsylvania

Henry Wharton Shoemaker (1880–1958) was a prominent American folklorist, historian, diplomat, writer, publisher, and conservationist.Shoemaker was born in New York City, but was closely associated with Pennsylvania, where he spent summers in childhood and took up residence later in life. Shoemaker summered in McElhattan, Pennsylvania, at an estate called Restless Oaks owned by his mother's family, and wrote that this experience deeply influenced his lifelong devotion to folklore and legend, hunting heritage, and historical and environmental preservation. After his brief stint on Wall Street, Shoemaker turned to publishing, running newspapers in Reading, Altoona, and Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. He was also an active writer, which he had begun in student publications at Columbia. He gained notice as a journalist after 1898, when he reported legends from Pennsylvania mountain residents and workers in lumber and hunting camps and coalfields, which he first published in central Pennsylvania newspapers and then more widely in the book Pennsylvania Mountain Stories (1908). This was the first of twelve volumes in the Pennsylvania Folklore Series (1908–1924) that promoted the culture and landscape of central Pennsylvania.From his maternal home in McElhattan which he inherited, Shoemaker devoted much of his energy to environmental conservation and considered folklore associated with the endangered landscape deserving of preservation along with the state's forests and wildlife.He was praised for drawing attention in his creative writing to the traditions of the Pennsylvania "mountaineers." His goal, he announced, was to show the legacy of legends for landscape features such as trees, animals, caves and caverns, rivers, and mountains; by making people realizing the spiritual narratives associated with the environment he hoped to make them more respectful and conservation-minded.Shoemaker's humanistic interests in his creative writing also showed in his campaign to have artists use local folklore as a resource for literature, poetry, art, and music. A prolific writer, he produced more than 100 books and pamphlets and hundreds of articles. In addition to his books of legends such as Susquehanna Legends, In the Seven Mountains, Penn's Grandest Cavern, Tales of the Bald Eagle Mountains, Allegheny Episodes, Juniata Memories, North Mountain Mementos, South Mountain Sketches, Black Forest Souvenirs, for which he is best known, he published more ethnographic field collections of songs and ballads (Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania, 1931), folk speech (Scotch-Irish and English Proverbs and Sayings of the West Branch Valley of Central Pennsylvania, 1927), and crafts (Early Potters of Clinton County, 1916). He also wrote some of the earliest accounts of hunting and animal lore, such as Pennsylvania Deer and Their Horns (1915), Pennsylvania Lion or Panther (1914), Wolf Days in Pennsylvania (1914), and Stories of Great Pennsylvania Hunters (1913).Contents:•Why the Steiner House Patient Pulled Through•The Story of Altar Rock •The Spook of Spook Hill •The Romance of Postoffice Rock•The Fate of Simeon Shaffer •The Legend of Penn’s Cave •The Hermit of the Knobs •Prairie King •Old Righter’s Ghost •The Mountain Soldier’s Presentiment •Granny Myers’s Curse•Witchcraft vs. Mother-in-Law •The Haunted Tavern•Fanny Hedden’s Hotel •The Ghost Walk •Ole Bull’s Castle •Booneville Camp Meeting •The Bald Eagle Silver Mine Originally published 1909; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain an occasional imperfection; original spellings have been kept in place.

This illustrated volume was published in 1914. Excerpt from the Explanatory Preface: The writer of these lines has always felt the thrill of the words Black Forest. As a small boy he used to gaze at the bold outlines of the Allegheny Mountains, on the opposite side of the broad valley from the old fashioned home where he spent most of his time, which formed the southern boundary of the vast regions of hemlock, spruce and pine. All kinds of fancies flashed through his mind, dreams of strange races of people, of Indians, of outlaws, of witch- es, ghosts, lumbermen, wild beasts and birds, that must inhabit this wilderness. And for more definite information he took to inquiring of the old people and strangers how the Black Forest really looked, how big it was and who lived there. The general replies were that it was a vast do- main of enormous trees, mostly evergreens, that it was sixty miles from east to west, and forty miles from north to south, that hunters, lumber- men and some farmers lived in it, also many bears and deer, a few panthers, and that until a few years previously there had been wolves, elks and countless flocks of wild pigeons. As the result of this information a great long- ing arose in him to visit the Black Forest, to see it with actual vision, rather than with the eye of faith. Every account of lumbering or hunt- ing that had its location there which appeared in the county newspapers was eagerly read, and enlarged in the imagination; every person was questioned who might have views of any kind concerning it. But life with its strange deprivations with- held this joy until the summer of 1898, when the writer was a young college student. But it was not too late, much of the Black Forest remained, in range after range of hemlock-clad mountains, even though the big lumber companies had com- menced their cruel inroads. Many of the old pioneers and hunters, as well as a few of the Indians, still lived, and were ready to impart their stories of the past to any respectful listen- er. And those days and nights in the original forest, amid strange scenes and stranger imag- eries will never be forgotten. In 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902 other pilgrimages through the forest were made, on foot, on horseback or in car- riages. The impression made in 1898 was fur- ther cemented into the soul by a host of fresh experiences and dreams. Then life withheld the Black Forest until 1907, although in the meantime the famous German Schwarzwald had been visited and admired and reverenced. Dialect stories are galore ; there is hardly room for more of them, even though the Pennsylvania mountains are still without their Charles Egbert Craddock, John Fox, Jr., or Amelie Rives. There seems to be a valid reason for writing out these legends. They treat of a phase of life that is no more, in a region which has been laid waste, that can never be restored. They are a chapter added to American folk-lore, especially as relating to the Indians. It is interesting to observe that some of them undoubtedly have a common origin with legends across the sea. This summer, while the writer was on a driving trip in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Pennsyl- vania, in Berks, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Lebanon Counties, he found legends similar to ones col- lected in the Black Forest. If the writer had been born in time to make his first trip through this matchless forest in 1878, or even in 1888, instead of when he did, he is certain that he could have collected many more and far more quaint old tales. Think of the pioneers and In- dians who went to their graves with their stories unrecorded ! The modest graves in highland cemeteries in 1898, and many thereafter, whose occupants the writer was not fortunate enough to meet bear mute testimony to this.

This volume of collected legends from the Juniata River Valley in Pennsylvania was published in 1880. Excerpt from the book's Foreword: Whether one cares for stories of war or the chase, of Indians or English, of religion or of love, he will find his own in Mr. Shoemaker's eight volumes about Central Pennsylvania. My own life-study has been religion, and it was because I saw the value for that study in these tales that I noticed them, in 1914, in The Pennsylvania Magazine. One of our modern religious problems is: How is the mind of man constructed? How does it work? Are our minds the same as those of the prophets and evangelists? For this reason the study of folklore has become an important branch of the science of religion. In folklore we see the mind of Abraham Lincoln's "plain people" at work. From these workings we can often get glimpses into the mind of primitive man. Every locality, therefore, should collect its folk-tales, and Mr. Shoemaker has done yeoman service to science by his collection. Moreover, there is a charm and a life in the teller's way of telling that gives a zest to the reader. One can smell the pines and breathe the mountain air. Wizards and warlocks abound, as if no railroad and no telephone could banish them; ghosts, too, haunt us on every hand; while, as I said before, the girls of the legends are so pure and sweet that many a city youth will want to take the Lewistown Express to see if any more of them remain. Albert J. Edmunds, Historical Society of Pennsylvania July, 1916

About the author:Henry Wharton Shoemaker (1880–1958) was a prominent American folklorist, historian, diplomat, writer, publisher, and conservationist. In 1924, he cofounded the Pennsylvania Folklore Society with Bishop J.H. Darlington, and he was its president from 1930 until 1957. From 1924 to 1932, he published a series of monographs for the society. From inside the book:THIS is a record of an eight-days' drive through one of the most picturesque and historic sections of Pennsylvania. It is written as a plea to "see Pennsylvania first." While the United States and foreign lands abound with interesting and romantic spots, right at our very doors, in the Keystone State, we have enough that is well worth seeing to keep travellers busily engaged for a lifetime. After one has become acquainted with his or her native state, then it is time to travel into other states or other lands. Travelling through inland Pennsylvania is attractive in many ways. The roads are, for the most part, splendid at least for horses and carriages, and any one wishing to admire scenery or study local history and traditions or to make check-lists of birds and wild flowers can find satisfaction in no other way. The hotels in the region visited in this Blue Mountain trip were above the average of excellence. The beds were good, everything clean, the fare was simple but good. The landlords were invariably polite, and this feature was put to a real test, as in almost every instance our party arrived at the inns an hour or two after the regular supper hour. We cooked our mid-day meals in the woods, being provided with a small outfit, which consisted principally of a "roaster," a gridiron-like appliance on four legs, obtained from D. T. Abercrombie, New York and useful in many ways, a coffee pot, a frying pan, some cheap knives and forks, wooden dishes and some George Washington, or instantaneous coffee. While we were armed with a permit to camp on the state lands, we probably did most of the cooking on private property. We used every precaution to extinguish the fires before leaving, and gathered up all papers and rubbish, so as to leave the grounds as neat as we found them. The prevalence of springs of clear, pure water all through these mountains, made camping a most delightful experience. The prices at the hotels where we stopped for the nights were very reasonable, the general charge being four dollars for supper, breakfast and lodging for two persons and driver and two meals each for pair of horses. We hired our team in Reading, where there are several good liveries. In order to fully enjoy the Blue Mountain country, a driver speaking Pennsylvania German is essential. This is a passport to the confidence and good will of the people, especially the older ones; which when gained, they are ready and anxious to answer questions of all kinds. The Pennsylvania "Dutchman" is shy by nature, and inclined to be suspicions of strangers when living in remote localities, but a word or two in his favorite tongue soon puts him at his ease, and he has a heart of gold. It is recommended that for reference the following books be taken on a drive into the Blue Ridge: D. C. Henning's "Tales of the Blue Mountains," Chester A. Reed's "Land Birds of America," Mrs. William Starr Dana's "How to Know the Wild Flowers," "Getting Acquainted with the Trees," by Horace McFarland, and a pocket map of Pennsylvania. We usually drove thirty miles a day, but on some occasions covered forty without any difficulty. It is hoped that others will enjoy this particularly charming drive.This book published in 1914 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.

Excerpt from Pennsylvania Mountain StoriesMccargo, in response to the proprietor's query of supper, said he had eaten and asked to be shown to his room. A boy, with cataracts on his eyes, who was carrying his grip, groped the way up stairs and unlocked the door of room 18, in the oldest part of the house. Originally it had been an enormous room, running from the front to the back of the house, but it had been di vided into two rooms by a partition made of a lot of door frames, fastened together with the knobs and locks still on them. The partition looked more like a hallway in a many-roomed apartment house in a big city than the dividing wall between two bed chambers in a coun try hotel. The furniture consisted of a wooden bed, which was painted green with red flower designs, and a wash stand and chair. There was blue paper but not a picture on the wall. In one corner were a couple of iron hooks for clothing. The house had been so added to that there was only one window left in this room. And it looked out on the stable yard, now used as a stor age ground for bark wagons.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Originally published in 1912 by the Bright Printing Company, The Indian Steps belongs to Henry Shoemaker’s robust corpus of tales and legends based on the folklore of Pennsylvania. This early Shoemaker collection of literary folklore paints a colorful picture of the natural landscape, folklore, and society of Central Pennsylvania, which Henry Shoemaker held dear. Beginning with the notable legend of the Indian Steps near Stone Valley, this volume includes stories about fantastical fairies, mysterious hermits, serendipitous romance, Native American legends, ghosts, and hauntings. The volume places a special focus on familiar locations in Centre County, such as Tussey Mountain, Black Moshannon, and Stone Valley. The text, reproduced in facsimile for the first time since its original printing, includes period photographs by W. T. Clarke.

Black Forest Souvenirs was inspired by Henry Shoemaker’s early experience in the Black Forest of Germany and the mystical draw of its vast expanse of hemlocks, spruces, and pines interspersed with lumbermen and roaming wildlife. On trips to Clinton, Potter, McKean, and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania between 1899 and 1902, Shoemaker discovered forests still intact, evoking the romantic ideal of the German Schwarzwald. However, upon returning to the mountains five years later, he found these forests desolated by the logging industry, practically a ruin—a vision far from the romanticized wilderness he had encountered early in life. This destruction inspired Shoemaker to attempt to preserve the region’s folklore, recording stories and tales told by elderly residents of the area. Traversing the line between fact and fiction, Black Forest Souvenirs reveals a pristine landscape preserved in the minds of its people. This collection of legends from the northern regions of the state was originally printed by the Bright-Faust Printing Company in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1914 and includes photographs by William T. Clarke.