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The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the ... Sources and Embellished for Publication
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43 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1922
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 16, 2016
I don't know about children of today, but when I was a youngster, Paul Bunyan was part of story time. I suppose in these ultra-sensitive, politically correct times, the famous logger and his big blue ox might be seen as embodiments of evil for plundering the forests and all that. But ages ago, the stories about Paul Bunyan developed in the logging camps of the country, and he was a true American folk hero. So at least while reading this review, let's continue to think of him that way.
I saw this title at Project Gutenberg, added it to my 52 Pick-Up challenge back when I made the list for it, and drew the 9 of diamonds this week. And here we are.
But this is not a typical youngster's story book like I remember. This pamphlet was written by William B. Laughead, the first person to collect and publish stories about Paul. The edition at PG has a publication date of 1922, but the GR editions all say 1929. I imagine there were quite a few publication runs, because the booklet is in actuality an advertising ploy for the Red River Lumber Company. Not sure what Paul would have thought of that, but anyway.
Our author had been a logger himself. Here is a paragraph I found about him at a forestry website. "William B. Laughead (1882-1958) was a logger, advertising manager for Red River Lumber Company, and amateur artist. Laughead's chief claim to fame is the fact that he was the author of several advertising pamphlets for the Red River Lumber Company, which served to introduce the legendary folk hero Paul Bunyan to a wide, popular audience."
Paul Bunyan was a character who lived and grew in the hearts and minds of the men in the logging camps. Stories about him served as entertainment (who could tell a bigger and better Paul Bunyan tale?) and as intimidation for new, untried members of the crew that most likely had never heard of the man (That time when Paul....).
As I said, this is not a set of separate stories, but more of a somewhat rambling chat about Paul, broken up now and then with commercials for the lumber company. There are certainly snippets of story, but nothing like the ones I remember where Paul was more of an active character. And there were other personalities mentioned that I never heard of: Benny The Little Ox (he died after eating a cookstove) and Brimstone Bill, the custodian of Babe. Now I always thought Babe tagged along with Paul like a cloven hoofed over-sized dog, so I can't figure out what Bill was doing. There was
also a milk cow named Lucy who was fitted with snowshoes and green eye-goggles one year when the snow was so deep it covered the treetops.
I loved Babe the Big Blue Ox when I was little. But he was a sidekick as far as I can remember, whereas here he seems to have his own separate legends:
Once in a while Babe would run away and be gone all day roaming all over the Northwestern country. His tracks were so far apart that it was impossible to follow him and so deep that a man falling into one could only be hauled out with difficulty and a long rope. Once a settler and his wife and baby fell into one of these tracks and the son got out when he was fifty-seven years old and reported the accident. These tracks, today form the thousands of lakes in the "Land of the Sky-Blue Water."
Babe was truly a BIG ox!
This book was okay as a curiosity, but for anyone wanting tales of Paul Bunyan in true story form, there must surely be better options out there somewhere.
Oh, I almost forgot to include this bit about cooking in the camps Paul ran:
It was always thought that the quality of the food at Paul's Camps had a lot to do with the strength and endurance of the men. No doubt it did, but they were a husky lot to start with. As the feller said about fish for a brain food, "It won't do you no good unless there is a germ there to start with."
Ain't that the truth. LOL
I saw this title at Project Gutenberg, added it to my 52 Pick-Up challenge back when I made the list for it, and drew the 9 of diamonds this week. And here we are.
But this is not a typical youngster's story book like I remember. This pamphlet was written by William B. Laughead, the first person to collect and publish stories about Paul. The edition at PG has a publication date of 1922, but the GR editions all say 1929. I imagine there were quite a few publication runs, because the booklet is in actuality an advertising ploy for the Red River Lumber Company. Not sure what Paul would have thought of that, but anyway.
Our author had been a logger himself. Here is a paragraph I found about him at a forestry website. "William B. Laughead (1882-1958) was a logger, advertising manager for Red River Lumber Company, and amateur artist. Laughead's chief claim to fame is the fact that he was the author of several advertising pamphlets for the Red River Lumber Company, which served to introduce the legendary folk hero Paul Bunyan to a wide, popular audience."
Paul Bunyan was a character who lived and grew in the hearts and minds of the men in the logging camps. Stories about him served as entertainment (who could tell a bigger and better Paul Bunyan tale?) and as intimidation for new, untried members of the crew that most likely had never heard of the man (That time when Paul....).
As I said, this is not a set of separate stories, but more of a somewhat rambling chat about Paul, broken up now and then with commercials for the lumber company. There are certainly snippets of story, but nothing like the ones I remember where Paul was more of an active character. And there were other personalities mentioned that I never heard of: Benny The Little Ox (he died after eating a cookstove) and Brimstone Bill, the custodian of Babe. Now I always thought Babe tagged along with Paul like a cloven hoofed over-sized dog, so I can't figure out what Bill was doing. There was
also a milk cow named Lucy who was fitted with snowshoes and green eye-goggles one year when the snow was so deep it covered the treetops.
I loved Babe the Big Blue Ox when I was little. But he was a sidekick as far as I can remember, whereas here he seems to have his own separate legends:
Once in a while Babe would run away and be gone all day roaming all over the Northwestern country. His tracks were so far apart that it was impossible to follow him and so deep that a man falling into one could only be hauled out with difficulty and a long rope. Once a settler and his wife and baby fell into one of these tracks and the son got out when he was fifty-seven years old and reported the accident. These tracks, today form the thousands of lakes in the "Land of the Sky-Blue Water."
Babe was truly a BIG ox!
This book was okay as a curiosity, but for anyone wanting tales of Paul Bunyan in true story form, there must surely be better options out there somewhere.
Oh, I almost forgot to include this bit about cooking in the camps Paul ran:
It was always thought that the quality of the food at Paul's Camps had a lot to do with the strength and endurance of the men. No doubt it did, but they were a husky lot to start with. As the feller said about fish for a brain food, "It won't do you no good unless there is a germ there to start with."
Ain't that the truth. LOL
October 14, 2021
2021 reads, #89. I can't remember now what had me thinking about the tall tales from my youth of Paul Bunyan, but I decided recently to re-read them; and after reading up on the subject at Wikipedia, it looked like the place to turn was this booklet by William B. Laughead published in 1916 by the Red River Lumber Company, now in the public domain and easily downloadable legally for free at Project Gutenberg. Bunyan turns out to have this fascinating history; for while it's true that very simplistic forms of these tall tales go all the way back to the actual wildman forest loggers of the 1800s, the fact is that many of the stories in Laughead's book were invented by Laughead himself, and that Red River was in fact very upfront about this, that they wanted to hire him to "invent" a folklore history for this tall tale that had never really existed, which ironically turned into a legitimate folklore history after its publication and popularity. I was kind of surprised by how many of these tales I still remembered from one of those old brown-paged cheapo Scholastic editions we had back in the 1970s (particularly memorable, the griddle so big that people greased it by strapping blocks of butter to their feet and skating over it), and I guess not surprised at all that the 1916 edition contained uncomfortable additions that had already been excised out even by the '70s (such as the original tale having it that it was all the "colored" camp workers who did the butter skating griddle, since their skin was the only one dark enough to absorb all the heat from the skating-rink-sized giant griddle). So, read with an open mind and some tolerance towards the norms of that historical period; but otherwise, this is the source code so to speak for ten thousand tourist destinations and used car lots across the heartland that so many of us Generation X and older Americans remember with a fond heart, and can still be easily enjoyed as such here on its 105th anniversary.
June 28, 2023
Lots of Telling
Being a native Minnesotan and growing up with the tradition of Paul Bunyan, I was excited about reading this book. My expectation didn't match the reality, which is probably the biggest reason I rated it so low. I expected the vibrant tall tales I knew and loved. Instead, I got brief synopses with a weird advertisement at the end for plywood. LOL
Yes, there were hints of the stories I loved. I even read about characters I didn’t recall, such as Benny or Paul's wife. Those tantalized me, as did the information about the various pines.
My biggest complaint was that I got bored. Paul Bunyan was adventures that amused me. However, this book was telling instead of showing. It made me feel disconnected. I understand it's one of the writing styles from the era, but other titles from this timeframe were still engaging.
I think this does a good job introducing the idea of Paul Bunyan. It has value in keeping the lumberjack culture alive. I’m glad I read it, but there are more developed stories on the subject to enjoy.
Being a native Minnesotan and growing up with the tradition of Paul Bunyan, I was excited about reading this book. My expectation didn't match the reality, which is probably the biggest reason I rated it so low. I expected the vibrant tall tales I knew and loved. Instead, I got brief synopses with a weird advertisement at the end for plywood. LOL
Yes, there were hints of the stories I loved. I even read about characters I didn’t recall, such as Benny or Paul's wife. Those tantalized me, as did the information about the various pines.
My biggest complaint was that I got bored. Paul Bunyan was adventures that amused me. However, this book was telling instead of showing. It made me feel disconnected. I understand it's one of the writing styles from the era, but other titles from this timeframe were still engaging.
I think this does a good job introducing the idea of Paul Bunyan. It has value in keeping the lumberjack culture alive. I’m glad I read it, but there are more developed stories on the subject to enjoy.
April 29, 2024
While this book is made up of a bunch of little stories, they aren't really separated into tales, but sort of run together. It gives the whole book a feel like someone is just rambling on and on about Paul Bunyan, which sounds like it would be tedious, but was actually kind of fun. It's certainly not as polished as some story collections I've read, but all in all, it was a good one.
February 21, 2019
Fun read.
As a "Mainite" whose dad was a lumberjack, I find this story very amusing. I wish all Dad's grandchildren would read it. We have a very handsome Bunyan statue in Bangor, Maine.
As a "Mainite" whose dad was a lumberjack, I find this story very amusing. I wish all Dad's grandchildren would read it. We have a very handsome Bunyan statue in Bangor, Maine.
February 15, 2017
This is a pretty funny, pretty neat little book of Paul Bunyan's supposed exploits and folklore, covering everything from him inventing logging and the grindstone to the size of the hams he ate for breakfast to how he picked up horses and log carts so he could turn them around and face them the other direction. It has neat names and references, and it has some information on different types of logging trees, as well. An interesting historical tidbit.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews