There are plenty of collections of Tall Tales available. One of the best is Tall Tale America : A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes by Walter Blair. A broader treatment of American Folklore is Great American Folklore:Legends, Tales, Ballads and Superstitions from All Across America, Compiled by Kemp P. Battle. Two other collections, American Tall Tales (Puffin Books) by Adrien Stoutenburg, and American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne, also recounts the adventures of these larger than life characters and Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Taleby Robert D. San Souci, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator) proves that some women are larger than life as well.

As a youngster I loved those tall tales. I got from them a sense of wonder for our "big" land and the mighty endeavors that it has taken to tame it. They were a locus of my pride in being an American - for they portrayed the spirit that built this nation. Now I know about the real builders of our nation and the tremendous "stuff", courage and vision, that took on the wilderness, struggling through financial panics, dustbowls and wars to develop resources and build railroads and dams and cities. The men were smaller, but their deeds were just as great.

But there is another sense in which Tall Tales are "American". It seems that many of them have arisen from mass media rather that folk roots. For a scholarly discussion of this, look for Folklore or Fakelore and/ or American Folklore both by Richard M. Dorson. He concludes that many of the roots for these tall tales are in Madison Avenue advertizing rather than their supposed popular cultural beginnings. Other works by this author on American folklore include: Buying the Wind : Regional Folklore in the United States and the Handbook of American Folklore which he edited. Teaching Tall Tales by Tracey West is a guide for elementary teachers for using Tall Tales in the elementary curriculum.

Community pride festivals have abounded claiming him as their own. Dorson's forty five page essay in his Folklore or Fakelore describes the community and journalistic "battles" over which geographical locale had the legitimate claim to Paul Bunyan's deeds, and he has backed it up with a tremendous amount of documentation. Most of the legends about him originated in publications written mostly in 20's and 30's - they provided good public relations for the Timber industry - surprisingly most are still available!

Paul Bunyan Swings His Axe and Tall Timber Tales (1939) by Dell J. McCormick place Paul in the Pacific Northwest.

The best modern versions of these are by Julius Lester who says of the Trickster "in these tales created by slaves is the vital voice of our humanity."

Julius Lester's stories of B'rer Rabbit include:

The Tales of Uncle Remus;
More Tales of Uncle Remus,
Further Tales of Uncle Remus; and
The Last Tales of Uncle Remus.
Himself of African-American heritage and a skilled storyteller, Julius Lester has kept all the charm of the B'rer Rabbit tales and his versions are both delightful and contemporary, the books illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Lester has several other excellent volumes of stories from the Afro-American and African heritage including The Knee High Man, Black Folktales and John Henry.

Another outstanding writer of stories in the African American tradition is Virginia Hamilton. She has created her own trickster, Jahdu and her several books of stories about this little one always running have been collected in The All Jahdu Storybook, illustrated by another outstanding African American illustrator, Barry Moser. I have found these stories a rich resource for tales such as when Jahdu outwits the Giant named Trouble which will appeal to all children regardless of race. She recently published a volume of stories When Birds Could Talk & Bats Could Sing : The Adventures of Bruh Sparrow, Sis Wren and Their friends Eight fables gathered (and some, perhaps written) by Martha Young, a contemporary of Joel Chandler Harris - also illustrated beautifully by Barry Moser. She is also the author of the The People Could Fly : American Black Folktales. and numerous other books for children. A collection of work from African American storytellers is African-American Folktales. editted by Richard and Judy Dockery Young