Joel Chandler Harris

Joel Chandler Harris


Life and Career:

  • Born: December 9, 1848, Eatonton, Georgia, USA
  • Died: July 3, 1908, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • Occupation: Journalist, folklorist, fiction writer
  • Best Known For: The "Uncle Remus" stories, a collection of folktales featuring talking animals from African American traditions in the Southern United States.

Early Life and Influences:

  • Harris grew up in the American South during Reconstruction after the Civil War.
  • He was raised in poverty and worked on plantations as a young man, where he was exposed to African American folktales and Gullah dialect.
  • This early exposure significantly shaped his literary career.

The Uncle Remus Stories:

  • Harris began publishing the "Uncle Remus" stories in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper in the late 1870s.
  • The stories feature an elderly formerly enslaved man named Uncle Remus who tells fables to a young white boy.
  • These fables often involve animals like Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear, and they convey moral lessons and social commentary.
  • The stories were immensely popular and helped to introduce African American folklore to a wider audience.

Legacy:

  • Harris's work has been praised for its preservation of African American folktales but also criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes.
  • The dialect used in the stories can be seen as condescending or inauthentic.
  • However, there's no doubt that Harris's work played a significant role in American literature.

Additional Points:

  • Beyond the "Uncle Remus" stories, Harris wrote other novels, short stories, and essays.
  • He was a prominent journalist in the South and advocated for racial reconciliation.


Found 2 books in total
Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings
Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, published in 1881, is a collection of African...
Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit
Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit is a collection of folktales compiled by Joel Chandler...
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