African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Black Folklore and Humor

Here's another wonderful book to finish up this week of anthologies: it's the Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor by Henry Spalding.

Although the title suggests an alphabetical organization, the book is instead organized thematically and by genre, starting with testimony from slave times, followed by emancipation, and then preacher tales, songs, and poetry from the nineteenth century, and then humorous pieces from the twentieth century (the book was published in 1972).

There's a great quote here from Langston Hughes which gives a sense of the way that humor reverberates with African American culture:

The introduction is by J. Mason Brewer, the renowned African American folklorist who wrote Dog Ghosts and the Word on the Brazos and a groundbreaking anthology: American Negro Folklore.

Spalding was a writer who studied humor of different traditions, and you can find his other humor anthologies at the Internet Archive too: The Treasure-trove of American Jewish humor, Joys of Italian Humor, and Joys of Irish Humor.

So, 500 pages here to learn from, and also to laugh with. Enjoy!

Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor

by Henry Spalding