Minstrelsy of Maine

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1927. [STATE OF MAINE] [MUSIC] [WOMEN AUTHORS]. 8vo (8 3/8" x 6"); xvi, [1-3], 390pp; olive cloth over board, title and vignette of a pine stamped in black on the front, lettering in black on spine; a few pages unopened at bottom; small spot on front board, light sunning to top edge, wear to corners; binding tight; very good plus. A wonderful collection of over 100 original ballads and folk-songs indigenous to Maine. The editors state in their preface "[we] fully realized that collecting these songs was a man's job. We knew very well that we could not go into lumber camps and the forecastles of coasting schooners, nor frequent mill boarding-houses and wharves and employment offices and even jails, where the unprinted, and too often unprintable, songs of the kind we just seek originate and flourish. Had a man competent to perform the task expressed an intention of preserving these songs, we should not have undertaken the work. But no man appeared steeped in balladry and versed in folk-music, understanding the hearts of the people and wise to interpret what he found in them."

The contents include: The Oldest Woods Songs; The Prose Rhythm; Woods Songs of the Middle Period; The Later Woods Songs; The Back Side of Mount Desert; Deep-Sea Songs; Chanteys; Pirate Songs; Mournful Songs; Coastwise Songs; Songs of the Pioneers, and more.