The University of North Carolina Press
272 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 31 illus. , appends., notes, bibl., index
Torching the Fink Books and Other Essays on Vernacular Culture
Archie Green--shipwright, folklorist, teacher, and lobbyist--was a legendary figure in the field of American folklore and vernacular culture studies. An inspiration to a generation of students and scholars, Green was known for the remarkable passion, intelligence, and curiosity he brought to his explorations of everyday people, their communities, their work, and their forms of expression.
This book gathers twelve essays intended to represent the range of Green's writings over forty years. Selections include a study of folk depictions in the art of Thomas Hart Benton, investigations of occupational and labor language, and a contemplative account of personal and political morality in the study of Appalachian musicians. In an afterword, Green traces his career and reflects on the state of folklore as a discipline.
Woven through the foreword by Robert Cantwell is Green's biography, key to understanding his unique mix of activism and scholarship.
"In this welcome collection . . . it is clear that Green's contributions to the discipline and to public policy have been profound and extensive. . . . Few folklorists have so keenly observed such changes and shifts or articulated their significance as well and as variously as Archie Green has in this collection and in his life's work."
--Journal of Folklore Research
"Torching the Fink Books not only epitomizes cultural work in the public interest, it reminds us all of the collective challenges and the personal rewards of such labor, represented through the example of its most humble, yet perhaps most zealous, practitioner."
--Western Folklore
"[This book] is a best-of-Archie Green collection, which makes this book the best from one of the most influential folklorists of the last half-century. . . . Of course, not everyone can sit with Archie and soak in the experiences that range from Bloody Harlan County to the Saxon Pub. His essays, however, come close to bringing these wide-apart worlds together, if just for a time."
--Austin American-Statesman
"Like Archie Green himself, this selected collection of his writings aptly demonstrates the breadth of experience and understanding that informs his life of service and scholarship--a keen intellectual curiosity, a passionate dedication to social activism, an innate empathy toward humankind, and a belief in the collective compact that binds us all. Spanning forty years, these prose products of his far-ranging research pursuits define the discipline of folklore for the twenty-first century. When next someone asks me 'What is a folklorist?', I will tell them to read Torching the Fink Books by Archie Green."
--Peggy A. Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
"Archie Green's work unites a critical and political stance with a deeply humane ability to celebrate the dignity of people, their communities, and their forms of expression. This set of essays grows from his lifelong dedication to grassroots culture, his deep familiarity with worlds of work, his pioneering examinations of vernacular music and language, and his enduring interest in the ways in which people translate values into words and actions. Archie Green writes with insight and integrity, and this book gives me hope."
--Burt Feintuch, University of New Hampshire
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