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The Foxfire Series #8
Foxfire 8
Provides a comprehensive look at Southern folk pottery
510 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
3 people are currently reading
481 people want to read
About the author
Eliot Wigginton
88 books71 followersEliot Wigginton (born Brooks Eliot Wigginton) is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He was most widely known for developing the Foxfire Project, a writing project that led to a magazine and the series of best-selling Foxfire books, twelve volumes in all. These were based on articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia. In 1986 he was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year" and in 1989 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Wigginton was born in West Virginia on November 9, 1942. His mother, Lucy Freelove Smith Wiggington, died eleven days later of "pneunomia due to acute pulmary edema," according to her death certificate. His maternal grandmother, Margaret Pollard Smith, was an associate professor of English at Vassar College and his father was a famous landscape architect, also named Brooks Eliot Wiggington. His family called him Eliot. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from Cornell University and a second Master's from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, he began teaching English in the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, located in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Georgia.
Wigginton began a writing project based on his students' collecting oral histories from local residents and writing them up. They published the histories and articles in a small magazine format beginning in 1967. Topics included all manner of folklife practices and customs associated with farming and the rural life of southern Appalachia, as well as the folklore and oral history of local residents. The magazine began to reach a national audience and became quite popular.
The first anthology of collected Foxfire articles was published in book form in 1972, and achieved best-seller status. Over the years, the schools published eleven other volumes. (The project transferred to the local public school in 1977.)
In addition, special collections were published, including The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, Foxfire: 25 Years, A Foxfire Christmas, and The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games. Several collections of recorded music from the local area were released.
Wigginton was born in West Virginia on November 9, 1942. His mother, Lucy Freelove Smith Wiggington, died eleven days later of "pneunomia due to acute pulmary edema," according to her death certificate. His maternal grandmother, Margaret Pollard Smith, was an associate professor of English at Vassar College and his father was a famous landscape architect, also named Brooks Eliot Wiggington. His family called him Eliot. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from Cornell University and a second Master's from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, he began teaching English in the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, located in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Georgia.
Wigginton began a writing project based on his students' collecting oral histories from local residents and writing them up. They published the histories and articles in a small magazine format beginning in 1967. Topics included all manner of folklife practices and customs associated with farming and the rural life of southern Appalachia, as well as the folklore and oral history of local residents. The magazine began to reach a national audience and became quite popular.
The first anthology of collected Foxfire articles was published in book form in 1972, and achieved best-seller status. Over the years, the schools published eleven other volumes. (The project transferred to the local public school in 1977.)
In addition, special collections were published, including The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, Foxfire: 25 Years, A Foxfire Christmas, and The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games. Several collections of recorded music from the local area were released.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 11, 2021
Another great Foxfire anthology. There are four major topics covered in this anthology and they are as follows:
1. Blacks in Appalachia
2. Southern Folk Pottery
3. Cockfighting
4. Let Me Tell You About This Mule
There is also a fairly interesting introduction about the history of Mountain City, GA and the planning process for development of the Foxfire folklife center there.
Blacks in Appalachia: This section consists of interviews with black residents of the southern Appalachian region where the series is based. Foxfire's interviews are a highlight of the series and this section is no exception, and the student interviewers seem genuinely charmed by their subjects.
Earlier Foxfire anthologies were notably light on portraits of Black life in Appalachia (Foxfire 1-6 included just two full-length interviews with Black residents), and Foxfire seems to be making up for lost time, between this section and the interviews on Black church life in Foxfire 7.
It's admirable that they recognized the need to actively seek out Black representation in their chronicle of Appalachian life, albeit a little late. One can't help but wish they'd taken the bolder step of giving full-length sections to each interviewee, instead of grouping them together like this -- even if this meant taking up space that would have gone to white contacts.
Southern Folk Pottery: If you guessed that this was the longest section of the book, you would be right. I find the details about making everyday items from the raw materials found around pretty fascinating, but the section is certainly overlong. Each artisan has only minor differences in their process (although most could tell you the maker of any given pot by looking at it). One contact (Charlie Brown) uses a more modern process using gas and electric kilns, but despite this, his process is remarkably similar.
By the time of Foxfire 8 (early 80s) the art of pottery has little utilitarian use for the contacts any longer (most of their products are sold as objets d'art to tourists), though the process is largely unchanged. This does make the section lighter on the historical importance of terra cotta vessels to everyday life in Appalachia. Of course, the real strength is in the anecdotes from the contacts in the section.
Cockfighting: All aspects of cockfighting are documented here in bloody detail, from raising and training fighters, to rules of the fight and wagering, and even the impact of globalization on the practice. The section also includes lengthy interviews with two contacts, who as usual have fascinating stories. Like moonshining, the practice is quasi-illegal, with law enforcement alternately busting operations and participating in them.
Obviously many will have problems with the relatively neutral point of view this section takes with what is undoubtedly a cruel, violent pastime. That said, cockfighting is undoubtedly a facet of Appalachian life worthy of exploration, and in my opinion editorializing on the clear immorality of cockfighting would not only be superfluous, but also degrade the quality of the cultural history Foxfire seeks to document. Really, the rationalizations from the people interviewed are more damning than anything. In particular, favorable quality of life comparisons between fighting cocks and agricultural stock indict the conditions of the latter moreso than they endorse the former.
Let Me Tell You About This Mule: An interview with Po'Boy Jenkins, a mule broker. Generally, the business of selling and trading mules appears to have quite a lot on common with horse trading as documented in Foxfire 4 -- Po'Boy is open about the deception and selective truth-telling that is part of the business, which seems to have a modern analog in used car sales.
However, apart from trading, Po'Boy also sold mules from large breeding operations, which is new ground for the series and perhaps a hint of the modernization coming to the countryside. The cultural role of mules vs. horses and the breeding process are a good read as well, as are Po'Boy's more personal stories about life in his line of work.
Overall, while I would not rank Foxfire 8 as one of my favorite anthologies in the series, it still meets the high quality standards of the series and is a excellent read for anyone with an interest in Appalachian society and culture. If your time is limited and reading a 12-book series on Appalachian life isn't in the cards for you, I'd recommend reading The Foxfire Book or Foxfire 4 over this one.
1. Blacks in Appalachia
2. Southern Folk Pottery
3. Cockfighting
4. Let Me Tell You About This Mule
There is also a fairly interesting introduction about the history of Mountain City, GA and the planning process for development of the Foxfire folklife center there.
Blacks in Appalachia: This section consists of interviews with black residents of the southern Appalachian region where the series is based. Foxfire's interviews are a highlight of the series and this section is no exception, and the student interviewers seem genuinely charmed by their subjects.
Earlier Foxfire anthologies were notably light on portraits of Black life in Appalachia (Foxfire 1-6 included just two full-length interviews with Black residents), and Foxfire seems to be making up for lost time, between this section and the interviews on Black church life in Foxfire 7.
It's admirable that they recognized the need to actively seek out Black representation in their chronicle of Appalachian life, albeit a little late. One can't help but wish they'd taken the bolder step of giving full-length sections to each interviewee, instead of grouping them together like this -- even if this meant taking up space that would have gone to white contacts.
Southern Folk Pottery: If you guessed that this was the longest section of the book, you would be right. I find the details about making everyday items from the raw materials found around pretty fascinating, but the section is certainly overlong. Each artisan has only minor differences in their process (although most could tell you the maker of any given pot by looking at it). One contact (Charlie Brown) uses a more modern process using gas and electric kilns, but despite this, his process is remarkably similar.
By the time of Foxfire 8 (early 80s) the art of pottery has little utilitarian use for the contacts any longer (most of their products are sold as objets d'art to tourists), though the process is largely unchanged. This does make the section lighter on the historical importance of terra cotta vessels to everyday life in Appalachia. Of course, the real strength is in the anecdotes from the contacts in the section.
Cockfighting: All aspects of cockfighting are documented here in bloody detail, from raising and training fighters, to rules of the fight and wagering, and even the impact of globalization on the practice. The section also includes lengthy interviews with two contacts, who as usual have fascinating stories. Like moonshining, the practice is quasi-illegal, with law enforcement alternately busting operations and participating in them.
Obviously many will have problems with the relatively neutral point of view this section takes with what is undoubtedly a cruel, violent pastime. That said, cockfighting is undoubtedly a facet of Appalachian life worthy of exploration, and in my opinion editorializing on the clear immorality of cockfighting would not only be superfluous, but also degrade the quality of the cultural history Foxfire seeks to document. Really, the rationalizations from the people interviewed are more damning than anything. In particular, favorable quality of life comparisons between fighting cocks and agricultural stock indict the conditions of the latter moreso than they endorse the former.
Let Me Tell You About This Mule: An interview with Po'Boy Jenkins, a mule broker. Generally, the business of selling and trading mules appears to have quite a lot on common with horse trading as documented in Foxfire 4 -- Po'Boy is open about the deception and selective truth-telling that is part of the business, which seems to have a modern analog in used car sales.
However, apart from trading, Po'Boy also sold mules from large breeding operations, which is new ground for the series and perhaps a hint of the modernization coming to the countryside. The cultural role of mules vs. horses and the breeding process are a good read as well, as are Po'Boy's more personal stories about life in his line of work.
Overall, while I would not rank Foxfire 8 as one of my favorite anthologies in the series, it still meets the high quality standards of the series and is a excellent read for anyone with an interest in Appalachian society and culture. If your time is limited and reading a 12-book series on Appalachian life isn't in the cards for you, I'd recommend reading The Foxfire Book or Foxfire 4 over this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2024
A great overall series of books written by high schoolers in Appalachia about Appalachian people and their old ways and skill sharing stories. The students interviewed hundreds of mountain people and the results are impressive.
January 13, 2016
Foxfire 8: Southern folk pottery from pug mills, ash glazes, and groundhog kilns to face jugs, churns and roosters; mule swapping, chicken fighting, and more (The Foxfire Series #8) by Eliot Wigginton (Editor), Foxfire Students (Anchor Press 1984) (917.58). More transcribed interviews by the students at Rabun County High School in Georgia with their rural elders (See The Foxfire Book). My rating: 7.5/10, finished 1984.
April 28, 2011
A Great Series on how on people use to do thing when they were mostly self sufficient, and not store dependent different volumes cover everything from snake handling. to log cabin building to planting by the seasons, a must for DIY'ers and survivalists. Check out amazon.com for individual contents.
August 29, 2011
One of the oral history collections of the Applichian Mountain folks as written by students. Some good factual information on how people used to live in that region.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews