Carrick - The Goat and the Ram - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I'm uncertain why More Russian Picture Tales is the only Valery Carrick book online when Picture Tales from the Russian (1913) and Still More Russian Picture Tales (1915) are both safely in the public domain.  A more general anthology of his, Valery Carrick's Picture Folk-Tales (1926) may still be under copyright.  Because this is book is the most easily available, I'm going to follow the story of "The Goat and the Ram" with a few other stories worth looking up in that Project Gutenberg edition.

Let's hear it for quick thinking and outsmarting those wolves!

Now for the promised brief look at many of the stories in this book.  The first story, "The Cock and the Bean" is a classic cumulative tale where each participant has something wanted before someone can be saved.  "The Goat and the Ram" is next, followed by a Carrick drawing unrelated to the stories.  Those visual bits are scattered throughout his various works.  "The Hungry Wolf" could almost be a companion piece to today's story as a foolish wolf is outsmarted by a ram, a horse, and a pig.  "The Peasant and the Bear" is the tale of two farming, with one always outsmarting the other by correctly choosing the part of the crop either growing above or below the ground, leaving the useless half to the foolish partner.  Knowing that Carrick gathered tales from peasants and the common people on the streets of St. Petersburg, I found it interesting that he includes "King Frost."  It's a Russian tale I love and seems to be found in every significant general Russian folktale collection.  It's always worth comparing different re-tellings.  I enjoy telling "The Bear Paw", but realized I'd created my own form of the chant and how I tell it.  "The Bear and the Old Man's Daughters" is comparable to a Grimm tale.  Which came first?  We'll never know, but it's great to see how stories travel.  Similarly "The Straw Ox" reminds me of the Tar Baby.  "The Fox and the Blackbird" is a Russian telling of an Aesop tale.  That's most of it, but I leave a bit of discovery for you to enjoy.

Next time will be the third and final "Picture Tale" by Carrick here.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Carrick - The Dog and the Wolf - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I've long loved Valery Carrick's Picture Tales series of books.  Three are included in my "Russophilia" biography as they are specifically Russian peasant tales.  Those Russian titles are safely in the Public Domain.  His Picture Tales books, including those three and more, were originally published in Russian in 1912-1919 in St. Petersburg and Moscow, then the first three came out in English in 1913-1915.  So why is only the second book, More Russian Picture Tales, available online?  Why, even though he has a fascinating background, is Carrick barely an online English footnote? (He has an article in the Norwegian Wikipedia and in the Russian Wikipedia.)  A bit of mystery also surrounds his later books that don't have Russian in the title.  While published in the mid-1920s and their copyright doesn't seem to be renewed, I can't guarantee they are in Public Domain so I won't post them.  His simple stories are often excellent "nursery tales" as shown by his first book being included in the Waldorf curriculum for Kindergarten, but the text is not given.  Similarly Project Aruna, a Japanese site for learning to read English, uses various stories, but only from More Russian Picture Tales as part of its many free graded readers.

Have I aroused your curiosity?
I'll pass the results of my search about Carrick later in a special post outside my usual schedule after my third and final post of stories from each of the Russian Picture Tales.

This is from the first book, Picture Tales from the Russian, written and illustrated by Valery Carrick and translated by Nevill Forbes.

 

I didn't take one of the simplest stories in the book.  Instead I chose this story in contrast to a sadder legendary Welsh tale, Beth Gelert.  My favorite version of that story is told by Joseph Jacobs.  Two versions, one by Jacobs and another by Horace Scudder, are posted on Professor D.L. Ashliman's excellent site, along with three other versions of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 178A.  (For more about the AT Tale Types, go back to the article here by Wendy Welch, called The AT Numbers Unattached or Researching Your Stories Print Versions.)

Next time I'll choose a trickster tale that reminds me of another story in Picture Tales from the Russian, "Mr. Samson Cat."  Unfortunately, since that book is not online, you'll either have to borrow or buy that book to read about the clever cat who married the Widow Fox.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Caballero - A Girl Who Wanted Three Husbands - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

The title of today's story, "A Girl Who Wanted Three Husbands", trumped for me the title story from its book, The Bird of Truth and Other Fairy Tales.  This was even though Andrew Lang included "Bird..." in his The Orange Fairy Book and another tale, "The Knights of the Fish" is in the also respected Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith.  Here's the story about that girl.  I'll add a bit more about the book and its author after the story.

 

O.k. it's not the shortest story in the book, but I just had to read it.  Yes, it includes a few common themes, but it does still end (maybe a bit abruptly) with her still wanting three husbands.  What a refreshing change from all those kings (and others) who gave away their daughters without letting the girls decide.

Now a bit about the book, it can be found at Luna, an online archive of Public Domain books from University of Colorado - Boulder.  It's under its alternate title, found on the title page as Spanish Fairy Tales which is the translation by J.H. Ingram.  The author is listed as Fernán Caballero, but the translator tells us that's the pseudonym of a lady without naming the Spanish novelist, Cecilia Francisca Josefa Böhl de Faber.  Ingram's edition doesn't name the illustrator either.  There's a Wikipedia article about Caballero, but it doesn't mention this book, considering her only as a novelist.  The title story, The Bird of Truth, however, earns a very thorough synopsis of the complex story and also says: The Bird of Truth is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Cecilia Böhl de Faber in her Cuentos de Encantamiento.

As if all of that isn't confusing enough, the Luna site also gives yet another alternate title, Caballero's Fairy Tales.  Since "Caballero" died in 1877, we know it's Public Domain and it is also included in Index to Fairy Tales, which was published in 1915.  J.H. Ingram says many of the stories are from Andalusia, as well as noting many stories "are evidently transplanted from a foreign soil."  Yes, but we know how folklore travels, so that's no problem.  For anyone able able to read the original Spanish, Cuentos de Encantamiento, has 23 of the original 33 stories including this "La niña de los tres maridos."  ¡Qué maravilloso!
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Burgess - Why Jimmy Skunk Never Hurries - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

You can say today's story stinks!  Yes, it's about skunks and today's final book by Thornton W. Burgess, from Mother West Wind "Why" Stories joins a time-honored type of tale, the Pourquois story.  Pourquois is the French word for Why and here are a few sites pointing out its value in teaching:

1. Scholastic's "Teaching with pourquoi tales"
2. ReadWriteThink's "Pourquoi stories: Creating tales to tell why"
3. University of Missouri's eTheme's "Folktales: Pourquoi tales"which even links the topic to education standards.

That's all for today.  I guess I, too, should hop away "lipperty-lipperty-lip", but if you want to read the rest of Thornton Burgess's Pourqois tales here's the Project Gutenberg link Mother West Wind "Why" Stories to the entire book. 

Look for our next story, which will be from Spain.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

 

 

 

 

Burgess - When Mr. Hummingbird Got His Long Bill - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

From my kitchen window the other day I watched what at first looked like a large moth.  It was a hummingbird blown about by the wind while it tried to get near a flowering bush.  The wind was too strong for it, but today's story convinces me that bird came back later.  Thornton W. Burgess shows just how determined these little birds can be.

Today's selection and all of the other stories in Mother West Wind "When" Stories are not on the list of 35 Project Gutenberg books by Burgess.  I went searching for another source only to find it is at Project Gutenberg!  So you can read the rest of the stories from this nature book, first published in 1917.

The frame on this story took until page 210, but the story would work well by itself if you were to say it was inspired by the Burgess tale . . . or would that be like the hummingbird's short tail?

A final Burgess story is the next public domain story here on Keeping the Public in Public Domain.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Burgess - How Old Mr. Heron Learned Patience - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I once had an elderly lady tell me that everything she knew about nature and animals she learned from the Mother West Wind stories of Thornton W. Burgess.  That surprised me and made me look at them more closely.  There's even a Thornton W. Burgess Society at his home in Sandwich, Massachusetts with the stated aim of carrying on the pioneering conservation work of this author/naturalist and "to inspire reverence for wildlife and concern for the natural environment."  He wrote over 170 books and 15,000 stories, so there's no way I can do something from each book, but I'll use the reporter's How, When, and Why to take from each of those books.  (Just looked at the Where book on Project Gutenberg and realize I want to own it, too.)  Don't let the anthropomorphism of his characters fool you, they frequently have much to teach us.  Old Mother West Wind was first introduced in 1910 and with her came many of the characters in the later 50 years of books and newspaper stories and also on his radio show.

Today's story is from Mother West Wind "How" Stories which was first published in 1916. By the way, don't confuse Peter Rabbit by Burgess with the Peter Rabbit of Beatrix Potter which was first published in England in 1902.  "Old Mr. Heron Learns Patience" tells Peter Rabbit not only about this water bird, but shows the very differences which may get someone laughed at can also hold the secret to success.

Project Gutenberg currently offers 35 of Burgess's books.  Wikipedia lists the many Burgess works and also tells about him.  You don't have to stand in one spot, but if you are patient like Mr. Heron, my next Burgess story will be worth waiting to read.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.