Myths, Legends, and Folktales of America: An Anthology

by David A. Leeming, Jake Page

This marvelous collection brings together the great myths and legends of the United States--from the creation stories of the first inhabitants, to the tall tales of the Western frontier, to the legendary outlaws of the 1920s, and beyond. This thoroughly engaging anthology is sweeping in its scope, embracing Big Foot and Windigo, Hiawatha and Uncle Sam, Paul Revere and Billy the Kid, and even the Iroquois Flying Head and Elvis. In the book's section on dogmas and icons, for instance, Leeming and Page discuss the American melting pot, the notion of manifest destiny, and the imposing historical and literary figure of Henry Adams. And under Heroes and Heroines, they have assembled everyone from "Honest Abe" Lincoln and George "I Cannot Tell a Lie" Washington to Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Martin Luther King, Jr. For every myth or hero rendered here, the editors include an informative yet readable excerpt, often the definitive account of the story in question. Taken as a whole,
Myths, Legends, and Folktales of America reveals how waves of immigrants, encountering this strange land for the first time, adapted their religions, beliefs, and folklore to help make sense of a new and astounding place. Covering Johnny Appleseed and Stagolee as well as Paul Bunyan and Moby Dick, this wonderful anthology illuminates our nation's myth-making, enriching our idea of what it means to be American.

Genres: Folklore, History, Mythology, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1999

About the author

aka David Adams Leeming

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 — Covers many of the basics, but is a poorly edited book

If you are familiar with legends and myths, this will likely only serve to freshen your memory. And if you are unfamiliar, I would not recommend this book as a starting point. It is poorly edited, and I'm not only referring to the copious typographical errors. The chapters read as if they were rushed—thrown together hastily in an attempt to merely finish. The author gives poor spirit to the work as a whole. It's punctuated on purpose, but disjointed by fatigue. This book needed more dedicated editors.

Oh, but, yeah—still fun to read about La Llorona and Bigfoot.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t care for it. The material is good but the writers set it up so boring.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of myths and an exploration of how America turns people into myths.

[India · Rating 1 out of 5]

incomprehensibly organized

[Joseph F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A broad collection of American stories from a wide variety of sources. Leeming uses 4 groups of people for his sources: Native American, European American, Hispanic American and Asian American. Pretty good idea, but the book left me feeling like I wanted more. I can forgive that not enough was included given the scope of the book, but the author made me question some of his selections. Foe example, he mentions that there are many stories about Paul Bunyan, even though he never lived. But he does not give any. Not even one! But he does give us two speeches: one from Martin Luther King, and one from Malcolm X. I have nothing against seeing them as reaching legendary status, but I would have been more interested in reading some sort of story concerning either one that may or may not actually have happened. When Elvis died, there were many stories about people swearing that he was still alive. To me, this is the meaning of myth. But printing two speeches that are well documented, well that's just history!
Thanks to the work of Joseph Campbell, many people like to call any thing a myth, whether it is a philosophy, an idea, or a speech. I disagree with this strongly. To me a myth, or more precisely, a legend, is a questionable story that is fabricated after the death of an important figure or event. These stories carry meaning even if not literally true. Of course there would be many who would disagree with me, and that's fine. But when you stretch the meaning of a word too far, it becomes whatever you want it to be.
Still, not a bad book. I enjoyed to finally learn the origins of Uncle Sam and Yankee Doodle Dandy. And the Hispanic story of the Weeping Woman was one of the best stories (and creepiest), in the book!

[Meghan P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm usually one who loves myths and legends and folklore, especially when I'm comparing it with another culture. I was given all of that in this book, legends from Native Americans, European Americans, African Americans, and a little from Asian Americans, yet it was...off.
I don't know whether it was because this is on my school textbooks and I had to read it really fast, which is a lot of info to take in at once, or if it was the writing style, but somehow this book was just off to me. I feel like if I use it for reference more than reading material, I'd love it a lot more because the legends are very interesting. But this book definitely isn't a cover-to-cover kind of read.

[Ji Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of thought they needed more Asian American myths and I wish there was more analyzing of how Native American myths not only described America, but how their heroes were taken into American culture (despite the displacement of native peoples, I know their culture has influence American mythology).

[Speakerwire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dad making me read non-fiction, but I actually enjoyed this one.