Moonshine: Its History and Folklore by KELLNER, Esther (1971) Hardcover

by Esther Kellner

From the first day of a tax on Irish spirits in the early seventeenth century, moonshining became a life-style that found its roots in America. Moonshining survived wars, insurrections, depressions, temperance movements, Prohibition and the Internal Revenue Service. This is also the saga of the revenue men who stalked through the rugged booby-trapped terrain. Giant among them was Big Six Henderson, who in his years as revenue man sent more than five hundred to prison. Originally published by Bobbs-Merrill, this is a reprint edition. About 8 inches tall, 235 pages, bibliography, glossary.

Genres: History

235 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Zach]

Moonshine (Its History & Folklore) is an interesting exploration of moonshine's lineage -- with some fair foregrounding in the history of fermentation & distillation. Esther Kellner also examines how alcohol has been intimately connected to basic survival throughout much of human history. Kellner's quick history of alcohol definitely filled in a number of gaps for me.

The history of the local tavern was fascinating in its connection to the story of humanity. The mini biography of the legendary revenuer, "Big Six" Henderson, was also quite fun. The book is filled with colloquialisms that have mostly fallen out of usage, but some would be fun to revive:

"No claws show in a cat's trail."

The young man was arrested for "being distempered on wine and misspending his time."

With biases evinced in some of the unnecessary dichotomies the author draws ("pagan," et al.), as with all books, readers must think for themselves, weigh & consider, and not be too lazy to push back on an author when the moments call or too rigid when the author's palette does not tickle readers' fancies.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was rather surprised at Moonshine, presuming it to be a bunch of anecdotes featuring backwoodsmen and revnooers. Kellner included plenty of that, but she also did indeed write its history and how the hootch was made. Good read!

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esther Kellner writes an engaging biography of Moonshine and moonshining - the contraband corn whiskey from the backwoods of Kentucky and the history of bootlegging and tax evasion that encouraged its illegal production. Whether the producers were Scotch-Irish immigrants or settled frontiersmen, the lawless production of distilled spirits is tracked as a cat-and-mouse game between citizens who felt entitled to produce what they wanted on their own land, and federal authorities who, through their burgeoning Internal Revenue System, were working to tax these products. Particularly engaging are the bits of trivia Kellner includes to show the (often humorous, but occasionally reckless) extremes of each party: the evasive antics of countless embezzlers and perjurers are described in detail, and are contrasted with the tirades of Carry Nation and other 'dryness' advocates. But, as Kellner describes it, most of Moonshine's history and folklore existed in the back country, - not in the city taverns. And so she follows the figure of William "Big Six" Henderson - a leading revenue agent who levied the rules of law enforcement against the sprawling illegal practice. Accounts of specific 'raiding and running' episodes of Henderson's career both open and close this book. And in the numerous brief anecdotes contained in her story, Kellner focuses largely on the violators' devotion - both to their product and to their nemesis. Her retelling sheds light on a professional relationship between the outlaws who owned their technical moonshining craft and the strategic law enforcement official(s) who would eventually bring them down.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history was a little sloppy, but the cat-and-mouse stories of moonshiners and revenue agents at the end of the book were good fun. Revenue agent "Big Six" Henderson arrested more than 5,000 moonshiners in Kentucky and he never had to hold any of them in custody; he simply told them to show up for arraignment on a given date and they always kept their word.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, but I simply couldn't get much into it. I did skim through it and read bits and pieces of it. Some of it was interesting for me others not so much.