June 28th is National Paul Bunyan Day. It’ll be a tall order to come up with a book on a day this big.
We will start with the first Paul Bunyan story I read as a kid in grade school, “Paul Bunyan and other Tales”, by Irwin Shapiro, Golden Press, 1958. This book tells of four men: Paul Bunyan, Old Stormalong, John Henry, and Sam Patch. The first two were folk stories and the last two, John Henry and Sam Patch were real men of legendary stories. You will hear in later discussions, much more of John Henry and Sam Patch.
In the book “A Treasury of American Folklore: stories, ballads, and traditions of the people”, edited by B.A. Botkin, 1944, I find 932 pages of American folktales. It is a great resource of Americana. When I look up Paul Bunyan, I find “The first appearance of Paul Bunyan in print seems to be an advertising man’s idea. In 1914, The Red River Lumber Company issued a booklet of tales which has gone through twelve editions…today, Paul Bunyan is the company’s trademark.”
The book goes on to the first poem, the first book, and much more of the Paul Bunyan persona. A whole chapter is dedicated to him. This is a true textbook of folklore, and is amazing what one could read about, long, long before the internet. It is still an interesting book of facts and stories, and is not just scattered across the computer. One added benefit of books is the cohesiveness of the information. As old as it is, this is still a great read, to just sit and browse through.
Then I have the book “American Folktales, Favorite Tall Stories about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and others” by Barbara Wells Price, circa 1972. One of the others is John Henry. There are pop-ups or movable action on all of their stories. I continue to collect pop-ups.
My last book on Paul Bunyan was about his later years. In the book “The Bunyans” by Audrey Wood, 1996, Paul Bunyan finds another giant-a woman digging in a cave in Kentucky. It turned out to be Mammoth Cave.
Later married, with their two children Jean and Teeny, they built Niagara Falls, Bryce Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, and Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. You will have to read the book to find out why.
Throughout all of his stories, there has been one constant-they are all tall tales, and seem rather exaggerated. For example, it took five storks to carry him home. Daniel Boone and Davie Crockett gave him Babe, the Blue Ox as a present. As silly as it may be though, we all know of Paul Bunyan. But do we know his puns…
What did the tree say to Paul Bunyan? Leaf me alone.
What do you call a sleeping Paul Bunyan? A slumberjack.
What did Babe say to her son when he left for college? Bison.
Thanks for reading.
Librarytomes 