Tar Baby and Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus

by Joel Chandler Harris, E.W. Kemble (Illustrator), A.B. Frost (Illustrator)

The Tar Baby has been one of the most beloved characters in all of American children's literature. Originally published in 1904 and featuring the art of acclaimed illustrators A. B. Frost and E. W. Kimball, the stories in this edition are told all in rhyme. With illustrations by A. B. Frost and E. W. Kimball.

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1904

About the author

Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist born in Eatonton, Georgia who wrote the Uncle Remus stories, including Uncle Remus; His Songs and His Sayings, The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1881 & 1882), Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892), and Uncle Remus and the Little Boy (1905).

The stories, based on the African-American oral storytelling tradition, were revolutionary in their use of dialect and in featuring a trickster hero called Br'er ("Brother") Rabbit, who uses his wits against adversity, though his efforts do not always succeed. The frog is the trickster character in traditional tales in Central and Southern Africa. The stories, which began appearing in the Atlanta Constitution in 1879, were popular among both Black and White readers in the North and South, not least because they presented an idealized view of race relations soon after the Civil War. The first published Brer Rabbit stories were written by President Theodore Roosevelt's uncle, Robert Roosevelt.

Reviews

[Lauren]

This was/is an interesting book. It’s the basis for Disney’s Song of the South. (Whatever we think of that movie, I have to give Disney credit for making a movie out of African American folktales from the 1940’s.) I have been wanting to read the book/set of tales that the movie is based on.

Not exactly thrilled with wording & that has nothing to do w. the use of vernacular. (I actually appreciate vernacular was kept.) There are certain words in 2024 that make me twitch. I had to keep reminding myself that what I had an issue w. wasn’t being used in that way.