Tony Beaver Tall Tales

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	Tony Beaver

Brown, Charles E. Paul Bunyan and Tony Beaver Tales: Tall Yarns of the Prince of American Lumberjacks and his Southern Cousin Tony Beaver as Told in the Logging Camps in the North and South. Madison, WI: C. E. Brown, 1930. Rpt. 1982. Also available in Library of Congress microfilm.

Bunnell, Keith R., ed. Poems from Cable Street. Portland, OR: Fisheye Press, 1984. Print. Introduction by Christopher Howell. Designed and printed by John Laurse. Three poems, including "Tony Beaver: A Legend."

Carmer, Elizabeth and Carl. Tony Beaver, Griddle Skater. Illus. Mimi Korach. Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1965. "Tony Beaver, West Virginia woodsman and champion griddle skater of the Southern States, challenges his cousin Paul Bunyan to a griddle skating race" (WorldCat). Filmstrip based on this book New York: Taylor Associates, 1970.

Carmer, Carl Lamson. The Hurricane's Children. Illus. Elizabeth Black Carmer. New York: D. McKay, 1937. American tall tales, including "How Tony Beaver Built the Candy Dam," "How John Henry Beat the Steam Drill Down," and "How Davy Crockett Fiddled His Daughter Out of A Husband." "How Tony Beaver Built the Candy Dam" is reprinted in Children's Digest, July 196? [typo in WorldCat] (vol. 16, no. 159) and in Gibson, Bob. Calling All Girls; Children's Digest; Humpty Dumpty's Magazine. Bob Gibson compilation, S166. Calgary, Alberta: W. R. Gibson, 1954-67. Private collection, University of Calgary Library Archive.

Cober, Mary E. The Remarkable History of Tony Beaver, West Virginian. Illus. William D. Hayes. New York: David McKay, 1953. Reviewed in "Review of American Folk Songs for Christmas." Midwest Folklore, vol. 4.3 (1954): 173-181. Review available online through library services such as JSTOR.

Tony Beaver. Section in teaching unit West Virginia's Appalachian Music and Literature (1997), with a variety of teaching materials on Tony Beaver, including audio readings, writing exercise on tall tales, illustrations (drawing at left by Mark Clayton), and discussion questions on "Folk Heroes" Tony and John Henry. (Formerly in West Virginia's World School web site, now reprinted in AppLit.) Contains an overview with the story of Tony's race with Paul Bunyan and "Tony Beaver and the Watermelon Party" reprinted with photos of objects in the story and read by Phil Wyatt. Based on the story "Eel's Landing Throws a Watermelon Party," in The Remarkable History of Tony Beaver by Mary E. Cober.

Hillchild: A Folklore Chapbook about, for, and by West Virginia Children. Edited by Dr. Judy Byers and Noel W. Tenney, West Virginia Folklife Center, Fairmont State College. Vol. 1, 2002, contains stories, background, and related activities on tall tales and hero Tony Beaver. Includes cover drawing of Tony Beaver by Noel W. Tenney, also map of Eel River and illustrations by John H. Randolph. "Man of West Virginia" and "A Problem Solved" are short Tony Beaver tales collected by Ruth Ann Musick, from the WV Folklife Center archives. See Review of vol. 1 in Applit.

Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle's Cousins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969. Includes Tony Beaver and Davy Crockett.

Marais, Josef, and Max Berton. Tony Beaver. New York: G. Schirmer, 1954. Musical score for folk opera with music by Marais and libretto by Berton. "Review of Tony Beaver" by Joseph Levine in Notes, vol. 12.3 (1955): 486. Review available online through library services such as JSTOR.

Montague, Margaret Prescott, ed. Up Eel River. New York: Macmillan, 1928. "This collection contains legendary tall tales about Tony Beaver, a strong hero in the lumber campus of West Virginia. Tony Beaver is the Paul Bunyan of Appalachia" (note by Judy P. Byers). Illustrated with silhouettes.

Montague, Margaret Prescott. "Big Music." In American Folk and Fairy Tales. Ed. Rachel Field. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1929, pp. 197-222. Followed by two Paul Bunyan stories. Also contains three Southern Mountain Stories: "Gally Mander" and two Kentucky tales by Percy MacKaye.

Rees, Ennis. The Song of Paul Bunyan and Tony Beaver. Illus. Robert Osborn. New York: Pantheon, 1964. 183 pp. This is a 39-chapter narrative poem based on older prose retellings of Paul Bunyan tales, and the main source for Tony Beaver is Montague's Up Eel River.

Rees, Ennis. The Song of Paul Bunyan and Tony Beaver. LP. Spoken Arts, 1967. "Poem read by the author. . . Edition recorded: New York, Pantheon Books, 1964. . . Author's notes concerning the poem on slipcase" (WorldCat).

Shay, Frank. Here's Audacity!: American Legendary Heroes. Illus. Eben Given. Essay Index Reprint Series. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Pr, 1930, 1967. Includes "Tony Beaver, of Eel River, West Virginia," John Henry, and others American tall tale heroes.

"Tony Beaver ... Axe-Swinger of Old Virginny." In Simon, Tony. Far Out Tales. 1975 (Original title: Ripsnorters and Ribticklers: Famous American Folk Tales. Scholastic, 1958). Includes Paul Bunyan and other American tall tales.

Tall Tales in American Folklore: Tony Beaver. Filmstrip. Coronet Instructional Media, 1972. "Tells the tale of the West Virginia lumberjack, Tony Beaver, who invented matches, clothespins, and peanut brittle. For elementary grades" and junior high school. With study guide (WorldCat). 11 minutes. Others in this series of 6 filmstrips include Davy Crockett, Stormalong, Johnny Appleseed, Febold Feboldson, and Big Mose.

See also

Appalachian tall tales in picture book bibliography, such as Swamp Angel by Isaacs & Zelinsky, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett by Kellogg, The Tale of Willie Monroe by Schroeder and Glass.

John Henry - Legendary tall tale hero also associated with West Virginia

Compare with other American tall tale heroes, such as the lumberjack Paul Bunyan. Steven Kellogg has pictures books on Bunyan and other tall tales. AppLit's folktale collections bibliography includes Appalachian and other American tall tales.

Links checked 7/28/05 | Top of Page | Last update: 11/1/10