What do you think?
Rate this book
Big Men, Big Country: A Collection of American Tall Tales
In the great spirit of American storytelling, this anthology features nine tales about such legendary American heroes as John Henry, Paul Bunyon, and Pecos Bill. By the author of The Slugger's A Sports Mystery.
- GenresAmericana
79 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1993
23 people want to read
About the author
Paul Robert Walker
33 books7 followersI was born in Oak Park, Illinois—just like Ernest Hemingway, only later.
I’ve been saying this in biographies for a long time, and it sounds pretty good. Ernest Hemingway is big stuff, and how many authors are born in Oak Park, Illinois?
Yet recently I was taken to task during a visit to the Fresno area, where two—count them two—separate individuals pinned me down with grueling interrogations involving specific details, places, and people in Oak Park, Illinois. I admitted to them as I admit to you on the World Wide Web: I know absolutely nothing about Oak Park, Illinois.
I was born in Oak Park Hospital, but we lived in a neighboring town called River Grove. And we moved from there when I was a year and a half. I take my literary connections where I find them.
We moved a lot in my early years, four times before I turned eleven, for a total of five places, all in the Chicago area. My Dad died in place number four, which was a townhouse in south Chicago, across the street from the Chicago Skyway, now Interstate 90. I counted trucks on the Skyway when we first moved in, but I stopped counting trucks when my father died.
I was nine, and it was November 1962, a year before the JFK assassination changed America forever. I still associate my father’s death with the death of JFK, and throw the Cuban missile crisis into the mix. It was a pivotal time for me, for my generation, and for our nation—an end to innocence and the beginning of an exciting yet challenging era of social turmoil.
My mother moved us to Evanston, a tree-shaded suburb just north of Chicago, where she got a job as a 3rd grade teacher. She later found a new career as an adjustment teacher (similar to a school counselor) in the Chicago schools. I grew up surrounded by teachers, who discussed education until they were blue in the face—which didn't turn me blue personally, but did make me believe that education was pretty important.
Evanston was a cultured place, home of Northwestern University, and I got my first taste of theater as an 8th grade extra in a Northwestern production of Don Quixote starring Peter Strauss, who later went on to mini-series stardom in Rich Man, Poor Man. On the closing night, Peter was so sick he couldn’t perform, so his understudy stepped into the starring role, with the understudy’s understudy stepping in for him and on down the line until I rose from the ranks of faceless extras and took the demanding role of Second Mule Skinner—which meant I got to mumble something like, “Move on, there!” I was hooked.
I continued acting, started singing, and had my first short story published at Evanston Township High School, which at that time was rated the number one public high school in America (by whomever rates these things.) I studied acting for a year at Boston University School of Fine Arts, and when I decided that I wanted a broader education, I transferred to Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in Anglo-American literature. Just before graduation, I won third place in a short story contest and received a check for the whopping amount of $20. It was the first time I was ever paid for my writing and it felt good.
After college, I taught English for six years at a Chassidic Yeshiva in West Hollywood, while playing in a rock band and writing for an alternative weekly newspaper. I started writing for the newspaper after I won a story contest with a tall tale about a guy who loses his triplex on the beach during a game of darts with the devil. It was called "Darts with Mr. D," and the paper presented me with a princely check for $100—a 500% increase over my college contest award. Not only that, they asked me to keep writing for them, only—get this—they wanted actual journalism! I did what I could and had lots of fun doing it.
I got my big break when I answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times that said, “Writers Wanted.” I thought it was some weird scam but decided t
I’ve been saying this in biographies for a long time, and it sounds pretty good. Ernest Hemingway is big stuff, and how many authors are born in Oak Park, Illinois?
Yet recently I was taken to task during a visit to the Fresno area, where two—count them two—separate individuals pinned me down with grueling interrogations involving specific details, places, and people in Oak Park, Illinois. I admitted to them as I admit to you on the World Wide Web: I know absolutely nothing about Oak Park, Illinois.
I was born in Oak Park Hospital, but we lived in a neighboring town called River Grove. And we moved from there when I was a year and a half. I take my literary connections where I find them.
We moved a lot in my early years, four times before I turned eleven, for a total of five places, all in the Chicago area. My Dad died in place number four, which was a townhouse in south Chicago, across the street from the Chicago Skyway, now Interstate 90. I counted trucks on the Skyway when we first moved in, but I stopped counting trucks when my father died.
I was nine, and it was November 1962, a year before the JFK assassination changed America forever. I still associate my father’s death with the death of JFK, and throw the Cuban missile crisis into the mix. It was a pivotal time for me, for my generation, and for our nation—an end to innocence and the beginning of an exciting yet challenging era of social turmoil.
My mother moved us to Evanston, a tree-shaded suburb just north of Chicago, where she got a job as a 3rd grade teacher. She later found a new career as an adjustment teacher (similar to a school counselor) in the Chicago schools. I grew up surrounded by teachers, who discussed education until they were blue in the face—which didn't turn me blue personally, but did make me believe that education was pretty important.
Evanston was a cultured place, home of Northwestern University, and I got my first taste of theater as an 8th grade extra in a Northwestern production of Don Quixote starring Peter Strauss, who later went on to mini-series stardom in Rich Man, Poor Man. On the closing night, Peter was so sick he couldn’t perform, so his understudy stepped into the starring role, with the understudy’s understudy stepping in for him and on down the line until I rose from the ranks of faceless extras and took the demanding role of Second Mule Skinner—which meant I got to mumble something like, “Move on, there!” I was hooked.
I continued acting, started singing, and had my first short story published at Evanston Township High School, which at that time was rated the number one public high school in America (by whomever rates these things.) I studied acting for a year at Boston University School of Fine Arts, and when I decided that I wanted a broader education, I transferred to Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in Anglo-American literature. Just before graduation, I won third place in a short story contest and received a check for the whopping amount of $20. It was the first time I was ever paid for my writing and it felt good.
After college, I taught English for six years at a Chassidic Yeshiva in West Hollywood, while playing in a rock band and writing for an alternative weekly newspaper. I started writing for the newspaper after I won a story contest with a tall tale about a guy who loses his triplex on the beach during a game of darts with the devil. It was called "Darts with Mr. D," and the paper presented me with a princely check for $100—a 500% increase over my college contest award. Not only that, they asked me to keep writing for them, only—get this—they wanted actual journalism! I did what I could and had lots of fun doing it.
I got my big break when I answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times that said, “Writers Wanted.” I thought it was some weird scam but decided t
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 27, 2020
Nine boisterous Tall Tales are included in Paul Robert Walker's Big Men, Big Country, which features the legendary adventures of many well-known figures, as well as those of a few more obscure characters. Here is Davy Crockett, that "ring-tailed roarer" who - in Davy Crockett Teaches the Steamboat a Leetle Patriotism - confronts a steamboat captain who won't allow his friend, Death Hug the Bear, on board his boat. Here too is Old Stormalong, the greatest sailor of them all; Big Mose, the tallest, strongest fireman in nineteenth-century New York City; that massive North Woods lumberjack Paul Bunyan, and his giant blue ox, Babe; and John Henry, the fastest steel-driving man ever. Less famous characters, like John Darling of the Catskills, Ol' Gabe of Yellowstone, and Gib Morgan, the oil-driller, also make an appearance. Finally, Pecos Bill and his wife, Slue-Foot Sue, round out the collection.
Told in true Tall Tale style, with embroidered words and an informal, colloquial tone, these tales are full of humor and fun. As the name of the collection would suggest, they are also heavy on the masculine side of adventure, and those looking for a more contemporary take, which gives more attention to female heroes, will be disappointed. Walker addresses this in his brief introduction, where he (rightly) notes the dominance of men in this type of tale. I don't really have a problem with his approach, especially since his book can be paired with Mary Pope Osborne's American Tall Tales , which does include more women, or Robert D. San Souci's Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale . Not every folk collection has to focus on women, or even give them equal "air time," as long as a diversity of collections are available. In addition to presenting nine engaging stories, Walker also provides detailed source notes for each of the selections in Big Men, Big Country, something I particularly appreciated. All in all, an excellent addition to any library with a shelf devoted to Tall Tales.
Told in true Tall Tale style, with embroidered words and an informal, colloquial tone, these tales are full of humor and fun. As the name of the collection would suggest, they are also heavy on the masculine side of adventure, and those looking for a more contemporary take, which gives more attention to female heroes, will be disappointed. Walker addresses this in his brief introduction, where he (rightly) notes the dominance of men in this type of tale. I don't really have a problem with his approach, especially since his book can be paired with Mary Pope Osborne's American Tall Tales , which does include more women, or Robert D. San Souci's Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale . Not every folk collection has to focus on women, or even give them equal "air time," as long as a diversity of collections are available. In addition to presenting nine engaging stories, Walker also provides detailed source notes for each of the selections in Big Men, Big Country, something I particularly appreciated. All in all, an excellent addition to any library with a shelf devoted to Tall Tales.
November 28, 2022
In a time when men and the tools they wielded opened up forest, broke into mountains, and gained control over wild animals, big men were respected. Those men are honored in these stories.
In this book, Walker combines and retells American tall tales, explaining origins of tall tales in general and this short selection of tall tales in particular. In a time before widespread popularity of and before widespread dependence on the internet, the short additional notes at the end of each story provides non-academic understanding of the origins of the printed stories.
In this book, Walker combines and retells American tall tales, explaining origins of tall tales in general and this short selection of tall tales in particular. In a time before widespread popularity of and before widespread dependence on the internet, the short additional notes at the end of each story provides non-academic understanding of the origins of the printed stories.
Read
June 6, 2019…
April 28, 2022
Includes some of the big ones and then some less known. Good bibliography.
March 27, 2012
San Diegans... author is from Escondido. Southern Californians... illustrator went to Cypress College.
I like local connections like this.
Far beyond that, though, is the HILARIOUS wording of these tall tales. Go ahead, go overboard with your southern accent... no one is listening except someone you love... make them laugh!
Interesting notes on the historical source, fictional or real, of each tall tale figure.
I like local connections like this.
Far beyond that, though, is the HILARIOUS wording of these tall tales. Go ahead, go overboard with your southern accent... no one is listening except someone you love... make them laugh!
Interesting notes on the historical source, fictional or real, of each tall tale figure.
April 29, 2024
Some really great stories here! Most of these "tall tale" collections feature the same characters each time, but I appreciated that these were stories that I hadn't heard before. A lot of fun, a lot of laughs.
October 25, 2011
The boys enjoyed the tall tales. I had never read/heard a good portion of them. Some were good, some were just okay.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews