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Famous Negro Music Makers

Famous Biographies for Young People

Famous Negro Music Makers by Langston Hughes, 1955.

I sought out an electronic copy of this book because I don’t own a physical one, and after I found out that it existed, I knew that I had to cover it at some point! The book is part of a series of biographies for children that I covered earlier, but what caught my attention was the author of the book, Langston Hughes, the famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. I mostly knew Langston Hughes for his poetry, and I wasn’t aware that he had written any children’s books until I found out that he had written several biography books for this children’s biography series. When I found out that he specifically wrote books about African Americans and other notable black people from history, it occurred to me that he might have even written biographies of people he knew personally because of the circles he traveled in.

This book focuses on prominent African American musicians. It contains a series of short biographies and profiles, beginning with musicians from the 19th century and continuing into the mid-20th century. Most of the musicians described in the book were contemporaries of Langston Hughes, but since the biographies are brief and focus only on providing an overview of the subjects’ lives, there is no indication whether Hughes ever met any of them himself. I was a little disappointed about that because I would have enjoyed hearing a personal perspective, but the personalities covered are still fascinating.

If you’re wondering why he uses the term “Negro” instead of “African American”, it’s because that term was one of the more polite and acceptable terms during his youth and around the time when he wrote this book. (That’s why the UNCF, or United Negro College Fund uses it as well. It was one of the polite terms in use at the time of its founding.) It sounds a bit out of date to people of the 21st century because, around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, which began around the time this book was written, people began advocating for a shift in the words used to describe black people. They wanted to distance themselves from old attitudes about race by using newer terms that didn’t have as much emotional baggage attached to them. This is when terms like “colored” and “Negro” feel out of use and were replaced by “African American” as the correct, formal term to specifically describe an American with African ancestry and “black” (considered somewhat impolite a century earlier, as I understand it, see the Rainbow and Lucky series for an example – I discussed it in the historical description of the 1830s) as the generic term to describe a person with dark skin and African ancestry, regardless of their nationality.

I enjoyed the range of different styles of music covered in the book. Recognized some of the most famous singers in the book by name alone, before I even started reading, but this book also introduced me to some musicians I hadn’t known about before. I knew about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, and Marian Anderson, but I hadn’t heard of Lena Horne or Roland Hayes and some of the others. I’m sure that modern children would also be unfamiliar with some of the musicians included in the book. The biographies begin with musicians from the 19th century and end with musicians who were contemporaries of Langston Hughes in the 1950s.

Because this book was written in the mid-1950s, some of the information included is long out of date. People who were alive when Langston Hughes wrote the book are obviously not alive now, almost 70 years later. There are more recent books that cover the same topic and include information about late 20th century and early 21st century musicians Langston Hughes wouldn’t have known about. However, this vintage book is still interesting because of its famous author and because it was written at a turning point in American history, when society was changing and racial issues were being challenged.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

The biographies included in the book are:

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Story of the Spirituals

This musical group began touring and singing spirituals in 1871. Some of the first members of this group had been born in slavery. After the end of the Civil War, the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church established the Fisk School in abandoned army barracks in Nashville to teach black children at the high school level. However, it attracted a much larger student body than high school students. Many of the students had grown up in slavery and never learned to read, so that was the first skill they had to master. In addition to children of all ages, the school attracted older adults who wanted to learn enough to read Bible stories before they died. There was local opposition to a school for black people, and a lack of funding endangered the school’s existence. The school’s treasurer came up with the idea of holding musical performances to raise money. At first, the performers weren’t sure they wanted to sing their spirituals in front of white audiences, but they turned out to be very successful. They even did a European tour and sang before Queen Victoria. The Fisk School continued to grow and later became Fisk University, which still exists in Nashville and is considered one of the top historically black colleges in the US.

James A. Bland (1854-1911), Minstrel Composer

This section begins with an explanation of the creation of the banjo as an American instrument by slaves. People have negative associations with the term “minstrel show” in modern times, but the book explains that the first minstrel shows were performed by black slaves who had a talent for music. They were allowed to travel between plantations to perform their musical shows. Later, white actors and musicians adopted the style of these performances and started wearing blackface to perform their own minstrel shows.

However, James Bland fell in love with banjo music and the style of minstrel performances from a young age. Although minstrel music had a poor reputation, and his parents disapproved of his interest in this style of music, Bland earned extra money by giving street performances while he was in college. Although most theaters only wanted to book all-white minstrel groups in blackface as opposed to all-black minstrel groups, Bland managed to join an all-black group and make a name for himself as both a performer and composer.

Bert Williams (1875-1922), Artist of Comedy Song

In his youth, Bert Williams helped earn money for his family by singing in the street. Later, he formed a partnership with George Walker, and the two of them developed a musical comedy act. Bert Williams became famous for his act, but it also troubled him because he weirdly had to use blackface, even as a black person, because that’s what audiences expected, and he also had to act dumb when he was actually very smart. He wanted to move on to more serious roles as an actor, but people didn’t think he could play anything other than comedic roles. Also, in spite of his fame, he was treated as a second-class citizen everywhere outside of the theater because of Jim Crow laws. He was quoted describing the situation, “It is no disgrace to be a Negro, but it is very inconvenient.”

Bill Robinson (1878-1949), Music with His Feet

Bill Robinson was a famous tap dancer, often credited under his nickname, Bojangles. He was orphaned at a young age and partially raised by his grandmother, who was a former slave. He left school at the age of eight and got a job in a riding stable because he loved horses. He also earned extra money by dancing on street corners and ended up joining a traveling show. He became famous for his dancing and had dancing roles in movies. He is particularly remembered for his appearances in Shirley Temple movies in the 1930s.

(Note: He and Shirley Temple are regarded as the first interracial dance team in movies. While people of the time might have been scandalized by an interracial adult dancing team, it was acceptable for little Shirley Temple to dance with Bill Robinson because of her youth and innocence. Basically, because she was a young child, and he was in his 50s, it was obvious that there could be no romantic relationship between the two of them. Segregationists of the early 20th century feared interracial marriages and created laws to prevent them, which is why they feared any suggestion of romance between a black person and a white person. Shirley Temple was a safe person for Robinson to dance with because she was just a cute little girl dancing with her “Uncle Billy”, not a potential romantic partner.)

Leadbelly (1880s-1949), The Essence of Folk Song

His original name was Huddie Leadbetter, and he had a wild youth. He was a rough fighter who was even charged with murder and assault and sent to prison and escaped multiple times. (The book notes that he may not have actually killed anybody. The book explains that he was involved in brawls with other local people at Saturday night dances, where he was in demand as a musician. During one of these fights, in which a large number of people were involved, a man was killed, and Leadbelly, as he came to be called, was the one who was apprehended and charged for his death. However, in this type of free-for-all fight, it’s difficult to tell who did what, so it isn’t definite that he was responsible for the man’s death. I’m not completely sure whether the description of the fight in the book is fully accurate, though, because I saw it described differently elsewhere. It’s enough for readers to know that he had a rough youth, that he got in trouble for a fight in which someone was killed, and that he was in and out of prison for a time.) However, he had a natural talent for music and a love of folk songs that helped him to build a better life. His performances and recordings are credited for preserving songs that might otherwise have been lost to time.

Jelly Roll Morton (1885-1941), From Ragtime to Jazz

His original name was Ferdinand Joseph Le Menthe, and he grew up in a mixed race family in New Orleans. New Orleans was an exciting city with many different types of music, and Morton (as he later called himself) discovered his love of music early in life. He worked a variety of jobs in his youth, but through it all, he continued to play his music. He traveled the country, learning and playing ragtime and jazz music, eventually composing his own songs.

Roland Hayes (1887-(later D. 1977)), Famous Concert Artist

Roland Hayes was a student at Fisk University (whose origins were described in the first chapter of this book) in his youth. However, while the Fisk Jubilee Singers had popularized Negro spirituals and helped make it acceptable for theaters to book black people to sing these songs, Hayes was in love with classical music from Europe, the style of Beethoven and Brahms and classical opera, and theaters would not book a black performer to perform that style of music. Still, Hayes was determined to find a way to perform the music he loved. Strangely, motion pictures helped him to get his start. Because movies were silent then, all music had to be provided by live musicians in the theater. Hayes got his start singing behind the screens of movie theaters, where no one could tell that the performer was a black man. He also toured with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and made a name for himself in London, where he even sang before King George V.

William Grant Still (1895-(later D. 1978)), Distinguished Composer

In his day, William Grant Still was considered “the most prolific of American Negro composers.” He was raised to have a love of learning and music, although his mother and stepfather thought that music would be an unreliable career, unless he was teaching. For a while, he studied science at Wilberforce University, but he later attended Oberlin College to learn musical composition. He also worked for W. C. Handy’s music publishing company. He later moved to California and composed and arranged music for movies in Hollywood. However, his work extended beyond movies, and he is mainly remembered as a symphony composer.

Bessie Smith (1896-1937), “The Empress of the Blues”

Bessie Smith is described as being a large and tall woman with a powerful voice. She was a blues singer who mainly performed before black vaudeville audiences. The blues style of music had its roots in folk music, and it was considered lowbrow in the early 1900s. Gradually, it began to enter the wider culture and helped to form the style of popular jazz, but at the time, Bessie Smith’s style wasn’t taken seriously by Broadway. Bessie Smith was well-loved in her performances and may have gone on to be a bigger star, but unfortunately, she died from injuries in a car accident. According to the book,she might have survived, but the nearest hospital was for white people only and refused to take her. She died on the way to a hospital that would accept black people. This was just one of the harsh realities of life and death in the segregated South. However, the story about the whites-only hospital appears to have been discredited since this book was written. It seems that she did reach a hospital that accepted black people and lived to have her badly-damaged arm amputated, but she was too badly injured to survive.

Duke Ellington (1899-(later D. 1974)), Composer and Band Leader

Duke Ellington‘s birth name was Edward Kennedy Ellington. His father worked for the Navy Department of the Government, and he was born in Washington, DC. His early interests in life were art and baseball, but his mother had him take piano lessons. In high school, he and some friends started a ragtime band. The band was successful, and they moved to New York. After a few years, they began recording for Columbia Records and other recording companies. He composed music throughout his career, jazz and symphony orchestra.

Ethel Waters was born into a poor family in Pennsylvania and had a hard childhood. She started working as a hotel maid in her early teenage years, and she worked her way up through adversity in the theatrical world. She became a vaudeville singer and actress, eventually going on to make Hollywood movies.

Louis Armstrong (1900-(later D. 1971)), King of the Trumpet Players

Louis Armstrong began his musical education in a very odd way. When he was twelve years old, he was apprehend on the streets of New Orleans for firing a gun in the air on New Year’s Eve. Firing a gun in the air is a dangerous thing to do (people are sometimes killed by celebratory fire), and the authorities decided that he was he was a young hoodlum for running around, firing a gun in the streets. The sent him to the Colored Waif’s Home, which was being used as a youth reformatory as well as an orphanage. As a younger child, he had played music on street corners with some of his friends and had admired musicians who played horns, but he had never had a horn of his own. At the reform school, he was given a coronet and music lessons. Louis loved it, and he loved playing in the reform school’s band when it marched in local parades. He was disappointed when he didn’t get to keep the coronet when he left the reform school. However, his talent had become known. The owner of a local restaurant bought him a horn from a pawnshop so he could play in some of the local bands. At first, he had trouble adjusting to playing again because it had been so long since he had played regularly at the school, and his lip got sore. When that happened, he would fill in the trumpet part by singing in his gravelly voice. It was such a unique sound that word of it spread, and soon, he was getting attention from audiences and other musicians. Early on, he found it difficult to read music, so he learned to play by ear, and he had a talent for adding his own embellishments and variations to songs. He became famous for his scat singing.

Marian Anderson (early 1900s-(later D. 1993)), Metropolitan Opera Star

Marian Anderson began singing in the church choir as a child, and she was so talented that her church raised money to pay for her musical education. Later, she was also sponsored by the Philadelphia Choral Society. In 1925, she entered the New York Philharmonic Competitions and won first place. She did a singing tour of Europe, where she made a name for herself, and when she returned to the US, she became an acclaimed concert artist. In January 1955, she became the first black performer to sing for the Metropolitan Opera Company. (That was the year this book was written, and it discusses this event as a landmark for black musicians.)

Bennie Benjamin (1907-(later D. 1989)), Broadway Song Writer

I couldn’t remember having heard of Bennie Benjamin before, but I had heard of one of his songs, I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire. It was his first big success, and he became a famous Broadway song writer. Something that made his music different from other black song writers of his day was that his music wasn’t inspired by spirituals, blues, or jazz. He was originally from the West Indies, and he moved to New York as a young man, so he was always more interested in Broadway styles of music than Southern music. At the time this book was written, he was still alive and writing songs.

Mahalia Jackson (1911-(later D. 1972)), Singer of Gospel Songs

As a child in New Orleans, Mahalia Jackson listened to Bessie Smith’s records and was inspired by her singing style. Mahalia’s specialty was gospel music. She never wanted to perform secular songs, but her music wasn’t the same as spirituals. Gospel music is different from spirituals because spirituals evolved from folk music with no known composer, and gospel music is more modern with known professional composers.

Dean Dixon (1915-(later D. 1976)), Symphony Conductor

Dean Dixon‘s mother was a music lover, and when he was a young child, she would take him to symphonies at Carnegie Hall. She had him learn to play the violin, and he played in his high school orchestra. He developed an interest in orchestration, and he formed a small chamber orchestra at the local YMCA, where he acted as the conductor. After high school, he attended the Julliard School of Music and did graduate work at Columbia University. While he was studying, he also led a mixed race symphony of children and adults in Harlem. He went on to become the first black person to conduct the New York Philharmonic Symphony.

Lena Horne (1917-(later D. 2010)), Singing Star of Hollywood

Lena Horne was an actress and singer. In 1942, she became the first black female singer to appear in a Hollywood move as a featured star in a film with white actors. At that time, typical movie roles for black people were minor comedic parts and servants. Even though black people in American society were educated and held professions like doctor or lawyer, movies typically showed them in more menial jobs, like chauffeur or maid. Lena Horne’s role in the movie Panama Hattie, in which she played a singer, helped to set a new precedent. During WWII she toured with the USO. After she became famous, she was known to turn down singing engagements in places that practiced segregation.

Famous Jazz Musicians (1800-1955), Congo Square to Carnegie Hall

This chapter explains the history and evolution of jazz music and discusses some prominent musicians from the early to mid-20th century who have not been discussed earlier in the book. Toward the end of the chapter, the author discusses a particularly interesting point that the National Association of Music Therapy was researching therapeutic uses for jazz music in the 1950s. Langston Hughes was also pleased that jazz could be used to encourage people to take an interest in other aspects of African American culture, like poetry, and how this style of music has spread all over the world.

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Abraham Lincoln Joke Book

The Abraham Lincoln Joke Book by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, 1965.

I love joke books on oddly specific topics! This one is a little bittersweet because it was published 100 years after Abraham Lincoln’s death, but the book isn’t about that. Instead, it’s a fun celebration of some funny stories about Lincoln and some of his favorite jokes.

The jokes are mostly in story form, and many of them are stories about incidents from Lincoln’s own life. Some of them are stories about his youth, like the time he helped a classmate secretly during a spelling bee and the time he played a prank on his stepmother by holding some younger boys upside down so they could walk across the ceiling of the house, leaving muddy footprints.

Not all of the stories in the book are true tales about Lincoln. The book admits that some of them are “tall tales” that other people told about him. Many of them were jokes that people told about Lincoln’s height because that was one of the first things that people noticed about him. It was all the more notable when he was standing next to his wife because he was especially tall and she was especially short.

The end of the book discusses how Lincoln would often use jokes and stories to make a point in a conversation or soften the blow of criticism. As President, he liked to read joke books or humorous stories to cheer himself up during stressful times. He is quoted as saying, “I laugh because I must not cry.” The book ends with a timeline of events in Lincoln’s life.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

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101 Valentine Jokes

101 Valentine Jokes by Pat Brigandi, illustrated by Don Orehek, 1994.

This is one of those little themed joke books that I used to pick up at school book fairs and used book sales when I was a kid. Most of the jokes are really corny, but I remember finding them fun when I was a kid. Happy Valentine’s Day!

One of the things that surprised me about this book is that some of the jokes are weirdly insulting for a Valentine-themed book. It just struck me as odd that there were jokes with people basically insulting their boyfriends or girlfriends or sending insulting Valentines.

Actually, as I kid, I think I understood the point of the insulting joke Valentine cards because, when you’re a kid in school, there are rules that require you to give a Valentine to every person in class, whether you like them or get along with them or not, so nobody feels left out. Those rules make sense because teachers don’t want to create a situation a situation where somebody in class is being deliberately ignored by other students or the kids are playing one-upmanship about who is more popular than who. But at the same time, when someone else in class has been picking on you all year, that’s the last person you want to give a Valentine. You can’t really give people nasty Valentines like this (at least, not without getting into trouble), but there are times when it can be fun to imagine that you could so you can tell off some jerk who desperately needs it.

But, when it comes to people insulting their boyfriends or girlfriends, I’m just thinking, “If you feel that way about this person, why are you going out with them? Go find someone else!”

Fortunately, not all the jokes in this book are mean. It would have been depressing if all of them were negative in some way. There are the usual knock-knock jokes, jokes based on puns, and a few jokes that are told in story form or silly conversations.

There is one long joke that’s a form letter for “thanking” someone for a present. (Hint: It’s implied that the present wasn’t that great and the person isn’t thankful for it. It reminded me of one of the joke poems in The D- Minus Poems of Jeremy Bloom, and I think the poem was better.)

Overall, I think the best jokes were the kind that I think I kids really could use in class Valentines without getting in trouble. Because of all the insulting ones, though, I felt like there weren’t enough of this kind of joke.

What did the chewing gum say to the show?
I’m stuck on you.

This book does have the classic:

Will you remember me tomorrow?
Of course I will.
Will you remember me next week?
Of course I will.
Will you remember me next month?
Of course I will.
Will you remember me next year?
Of course I will.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
See, you forgot me already!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Tools of Native Americans

Tools of Native Americans by Kim Kavin, 2006.

This nonfiction book is part of a series recommended for kids ages 9 to 12. It provides insights into the daily lives of Native Americans of the past by explaining their tools and inventions. I was intrigued by the idea immediately because I love books that give insights into history through the lives of ordinary people.

The book is divided into time periods and geographic areas of North America. At the beginning of the book, there is a timeline of important events in the history of North America and Native American culture, beginning c. 20,000 to 8000 BCE, when the ancestors of Native Americans are believed to have migrated to the continent and ending in 2006, the year the book was published. There is also a map showing major geographic regions of North America and the Native American tribes that live there. The chapters of the book are mostly grouped by region, except for the first two, which are about the First Americans and Archaic and Formative Periods.

The first chapter, called The First Americans, discusses theories about how the ancestors of Native Americans first arrived on the continent from Asia. The exact circumstances of their arrival are unknown, but there are some possible migration paths that they could have taken. The chapter discusses the Ice Age that existed when this migration took place, how people found food, and Clovis culture, one of the earliest known civilizations in the Americas. One of the activities from this section is about archaeology, which is what we use to learn more about ancient civilizations that did not leave written records, and how to create an archaeological site of your own.

The next chapter is about the Archaic and Formative Periods, which were characterized by climate change as the Ice Age came to an end and many plants and animals that had thrived in the colder climate died off. The changes in the environment cause Native American groups to make changes in their own lifestyles. Rather than relying on herds of large animals for food, they began cultivating crops. They made pottery and developed new cooking techniques. They still hunted, using a device called an atlatl to throw their spears further and with more power. Civilizations like the Maya flourished.

After the second chapter, the other chapters discuss tribes by region:

The Northeast Woodland and Great Lakes Tribes – The Algonquian and Iroquois

This chapter discusses Native American tribes from the East Coast to the Midwest, around the Great Lakes, who primarily lived in woodland areas. The Iroquois and the Algonquian were both collections confederated tribes. There is information about the Algonquian language, which contributed some words to English, including moccasin, succotash, hominy, hickory, and moose. There is also an activity about creating Algonquian style pictographs and petroglyphs.

The Southeast Tribes – The Cherokee, Catawba, Creeks, and Seminoles

The tribes in this chapter lived in and around the Appalachian Mountains. It explains about Sequoyah, who developed a system of writing for the Cherokee language.

The Great Plains Tribes – The Cheyenne, Lakota Sioux, and Comanche

The tribes of the Great Plains were migratory, following herds of buffalo, which were a primary source of food. Because they moved often, everything they owned, from the tepees where they lived to the tools and other objects they used, had to be easily portable. The Comanche were particularly known for being expert horsemen. This chapter also discusses the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Sacagawea, who was part of the Shoshone tribe from the Rocky Mountains. She had been abducted when she was young, and when she joined the Expedition, she was able to guide Lewis and Clark and their men back to the territory she had known when she was a child and to the Pacific Ocean. Activities for this chapter include making a rattle of the kind children used as toys, making a miniature bullboat, and making a war bonnet (using pieces of poster board instead of feathers).

The Southwest and Mesoamerican Tribes – The Hohokam, Mogollon, Anasazi, Maya, Aztec, Hopi, Apache, and Navajo

I know this area because this is where I grew up. Much of it is desert, and the book is correct that there can be sharp differences in temperature between day and night. In modern Southwestern cities, buildings and pavement can hold in heat even at night, but there isn’t much to hold in heat in the open countryside, not even much humidity in the air to hold heat once the sun goes down. There is an abundance of clay in the soil in this region which local tribes used to make pottery and adobe homes.

Among the civilizations discussed in this section are the Hohokam, whose name means “Vanished Ones” (I’ve seen different versions of the translation of that name, but they’re all words to that effect – that they are gone, vanished, disappeared, etc.) because, for unknown reasons, they seem to have suddenly abandoned the area where they had previously lived and farmed for generations. They don’t seem to have died off, at least not all of them. It’s believed that they were the ancestors of the Pima and Tohono O’odham tribes, and the book discusses that a little further on in the chapter. There is a Pima story about a fierce rainstorm and a massive flood that killed many people, but The Hohokam were the ones who built the original irrigation canals for watering their crops. Later, when settlers came from the Eastern United States, they found these abandoned canals, dug them out, and started using them again. The canals are still in use today, and one of the activities in this chapter of the book is about irrigation.

This section of the book also covers the Maya and the Aztecs, who lived in what is now Mexico and Guatemala. There is an activity about creating hieroglyphs, like the kind that the Maya once used.

In the part that describes the Navajo, there are activities for sand painting and Navajo-style jewelry.

The Pacific Northwest Tribes – The Nootkas, Makahs, and Tlingits

Much of this chapter discusses hunting and fishing and the preservation of food. Because food-related work mostly took place during a single season due to the severity of the winters, there were periods of time when the members of the Pacific Northwest Tribes had time for social and artistic pursuits. The book explains the meaning of totem poles, and there is an activity for readers to create their own.

The Arctic Tribes – The Inuit

The lives of the Inuit were shaped by learning to live in a very cold environment. The book explains how they built igloos out of packed snow and ice, but really, igloos were temporary shelters. The houses they lived in long term where made of sod and were partially built underground for insulation. There are activities for building a snow cave called a quinzy (this requires that you live in a place with snow) and for playing a game called Nugluktaq.

The last chapter in the book is called New Immigrants, Manifest Destiny, and the Trail of Tears. It’s about how European settlers arrived in the Americas, the westward expansion of the United States, and the confinement of Native American tribes to reservations.

The book ends with an Appendix with further information about Native American Sites and Museums State by State. There is also a glossary, index, and bibliography.

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Indian Sign Language

Indian Sign Language by William Tomkins, 1969.

This is the third book I’ve reviewed on the topic of Indian Sign Language, and the reason why I wanted to include this one is that it was part of the list of recommended reading in one of the others, a book that was written much later. I can see why it was recommended. I found the readability of this book to be lower than the later book, but there is information found in this book that isn’t found in the later book.

The introductory notes at the beginning of the book explain a little about the author’s background. He grew up near the Sioux Indian Reservation in the Dakota Territory during the late 1800s, which was where he was first introduced to this form of sign language. He was not Native American himself, but he was later ceremonially adopted into the Sioux tribe. He became a lecturer about American Indian issues, and he discovered that people were very interested in his sign language demonstrations. He wanted to create this book so there would be a readily-available text explaining how the language works. He credits this form of sign language as being “probably the first American language. It is the first an only American universal language. It may be the first universal language produced by any people.” I’m not completely sure that’s true, but the author does have great respect for the beauty and utility of the sign language and the role that it played in Native American history.

The later book had the vocabulary of the sign language organized by topic, but this book (like an earlier one) had it organized in alphabetical sections, like a dictionary. The hand signs are shown in drawings on one side of the page, with lines and arrows to indicate movement where necessary, and written descriptions of the hand signs on the other.

The range of vocabulary is much more broad in this book than in the newer book, and it includes descriptions of more complex words and concepts that can be conveyed by combining some of the signs for simpler words. For example, the word “generous” can be indicated by making the signs for “heart” and “big”, and there is a list of synonyms for words. The book also demonstrates how to form sentences using the vocabulary words.

There are a couple of sections in the back of this book that provide additional information about other forms of communication, pictographs and smoke signals, which is interesting because the later book that I mentioned also made references to these other forms of communication but didn’t really offer details about how they work. This book is very detailed on the subject of pictographs, showing what different ideographs mean and explaining how to tell entire stories with them. It even explains the correlations between sign language and pictography. The book ends with some historical information about this form of sign language and suggestions for a unit about Indian sign language for a boy scout troop meeting, which include a somewhat cheesy play where the boy scouts pretend to be American Indians and use words like “How” and “paleface” with each other. The book seems very good and thorough on the technical explanations of the language, but I suspect it could be a little better on the subject of cultural representation.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

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How Sign Talk in Pictures

How; Sign Talk in Pictures by Iron Eyes Cody, 1952.

I like nonfiction books on esoteric topics! This one has kind of a kitschy feel to it. It’s partly the “How” in the title, like the way Native Americans talk in old movies, but it was written around the time those old black-and-white westerns were made, and this sort of movie theme is actually a major issue with both the book and the author. We found this book as a library discard, and part of the interest for me is that another book by the same author (available through Internet Archive) was used as recommending reading in a later book on the same subject.

The author and his wife appear frequently in pictures in the book, demonstrating different signals in Indian sign language. Part of the book near the beginning explains about the author’s life, and what it says actually isn’t true, but the real story of the life of “Iron Eyes Cody” is pretty interesting. The main reason for the deception is that Iron Eyes Cody was an actor known for playing Native Americans in films, beginning in the 1920s. To support his film persona, he claimed to be of Native American descent, but the truth is that both of his parents were Italian. His birth name was Espera Oscar de Corti. In the book, he says that he was born on his family’s ranch in Texas, but he was actually born in Louisiana, and his parents owned a grocery store. The family did live in Texas for awhile. After his father died, he and his brothers moved to California to pursue acting careers, changing their last name to Cody. As part of his film persona, he was known to wear his Native American costumes on a daily basis, as if he were living a Native American lifestyle. Many people really believed he was Native American, but this costume quality is part of what gives the book that kitschy vibe. If you think that you’ve never seen or heard of Iron Eyes Cody before, it’s actually very likely that you have because one of his acting roles was that of the “Crying Indian” in the “Keep America Beautiful” anti-pollution PSAs of the 1970s. Yep! He’s that guy, and that’s the man who wrote this book.

So, you can disregard many of the details of Cody’s brief autobiography (there’s a fanciful story there about how he got the name “Iron Eyes”, but Chief Iron Eyes was actually the name of the character he played in the 1948 movie The Paleface with Bob Hope), but what is real is that he was married to an archaeologist of Native American descent, Bertha Parker (referred to as Yeawas in the book and also appearing in pictures to demonstrate the sign language), and they had two adopted children, also of Native American descent (one of which appears in pictures in the book). Outside of his acting work, Cody supported many charitable causes that helped Native Americans and promoted the study of Native American culture. He had a collection of Native American costumes and art that he called the Moosehead Museum, and he offered lessons in Native American arts and crafts, songs and dances, and lore out of his home. (The book doesn’t really offer details about how that worked, but my guess would be that his wife, the archaeologist, provided much of the instruction or at least educated Cody about these subjects before he taught others.) Cody also worked with the Boy Scouts, helping with Scout-O-Ramas and acting as an adviser about Indian (Native American) lore. He also sometimes helped the Girl Scouts. The book is dedicated to “the youth of America, especially the Boy Scouts of America.” If you would like to know a little more about Cody, I recommend this YouTube video and this one.

On the one hand, a person who is deceptive or misleading about their identity and credentials is worrisome and probably rightly considered unreliable. However, as near as I can tell (not being an expert on this topic myself), the information presented here seems reasonably accurate, and I think that’s probably due to research, consulting with experts, and the influence of the author’s wife, who did have credentials as an archaeologist and ethnologist and had connections to other scholars through her museum work. One of the beginning sections of the book is called “A Brief History of Sign Language by Bertha Parker Cody” with an accompanying list of works consulted (texts spanning 1880 to 1926, the 19th century ones apparently written by army officers because their ranks are given, if you’re curious – Bertha’s a woman after my own heart because she also added a note to her citation about a book with a particularly good bibliography section, and I’m a great believer in notes).

So, now that you know who’s talking here, let’s discuss what they have to say about Indian Sign Language, the main topic of this book.

In a foreword to the book, F. W. Hodge, director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, where Bertha Parker used to work, discusses the concept of sign language and non-verbal cues used in communication by people all over the world. People in different countries, speaking different languages, might recognize a nod of the head as meaning “yes” or a finger placed against the lips as a gesture to be quiet, but sign languages convey much more than these simple ideas, allowing people to hold entire conversations. The Indian Sign Language presented in this book was used by many different tribes, ranging from Canada all the way south to Mexico. If members of different tribes encountered each other, they could use this language to communicate, no matter which language they spoke verbally. When people of European descent learned this sign language, they also gained the same ability to communicate with a wide range of Native Americans, without even needing to speak a single word aloud. Hodge said that this was an uncommon skill for people of European descent, although he does mention one of the army officers referenced by Bertha Parker Cody in her essay.

In her essay, Bertha Parker Cody also explains the concept of sign language, referring to it as a kind of “universal language.” She explains how people have used hand signs and gestures to convey ideas and concepts throughout history. She says that the reason why this type of universal language based on gestures was necessary because, in the territory now known as North America, there were once more than 500 different spoken languages among Native Americans. Even groups who were living no more than 10 miles away from each other might be speaking completely different languages, but they would need to be able to interact with each other and communicate. It is unknown exactly who invented this particular system of sign language (although there are some possible theories), but it was particularly developed by the Plains Indians because they were nomadic buffalo hunters, often encountering other tribes as they followed the herds. As an added benefit, because the language is completely silent, hunters could use it without startling their prey, and warriors could use it with each other before a surprise attack on an enemy. Chiefs of tribes would even use sign language to convey important messages because it would guarantee that people would pay attention and focus on the hand signs to interpret what they were saying. She explains that there are signs that the language changed over time and variations existed among different tribes, there was enough commonality that members of different tribes could communicate with each other effectively. She concludes by saying that their hope was that this book would help to keep knowledge of this sign language alive among young people at a time when it was falling out of use and living knowledge.

The actual vocabulary of the sign language is presented in sections organized alphabetically, with drawings and photographs of Cody and his wife performing each of the hand signs.

The book ends with a section about hand signs for numbers and counting and a section presenting examples for forming complete sentences using the hand signs presented in the book.

The final part of the book contains an Acknowledgement from Cody to all of the people who helped with the research and writing of the book, including the photographer and the artist who did the drawn pictures.

My Reaction

I’ve already given some of my thoughts and reactions in the review above, but there is one more thought that I had about this book. I completely understand why this book was library discard. It is an older book, and there are newer ones that cover the same topic as well or better. The author is an actor who is not as culturally relevant as he once was, and although it wasn’t known at the time of his popularity, he was deceptive about his life and past. In some ways, though, reading and researching this book and its background was educational. The education I would say that I got from this book wasn’t just about sign language but also about perceptions vs. reality, the roles people play, the personas created by the movie industry, and also the expectations of the public and the credentials we require or are willing to accept from those with a message to spread.

That last part is the most complicated part, but the resources that I consulted to get the details of Cody’s life pointed out that he did genuinely encourage interest in Native American culture and support causes important to Native Americans, which begs the question of whether he would have been accepted in that role of spreading interest and providing support if it had been known at the time that he was not actually a Native American himself. The truth is that he was something of a fake and a poser. He wasn’t really what he pretended to be, and in a sense, he was acting in a permanent role, even outside movies. He was given roles as a Native American in films because his physical appearance made it credible that he could have been one, and as far as movies are concerned, that’s really all that matters. Average people believed he really was a Native American because he was a good actor and convincing, and they didn’t know enough about real Native Americans to spot the parts about his dress and act that didn’t quite ring true. However, I think that Cody’s interest in Native American culture was genuine, probably the most genuine part of his performance, and he appears to have taken a genuine pride in it. A person lying about their background is deceptive and makes other things that they do suspect, but I’m still left with some questions. If he had been honest about his family’s background, would his interest in Native American culture been accepted or would people have sneered and said that he should have stuck to speaking only about the culture his family came from? Is it possible for someone to adopt a new culture not based on family or upbringing but pure personal interest and choice, and if so, could it ever be as deep or authentic as the culture one is born into and brought up in? Or, will it only ever just be an act or a deception, something that might only fool those who don’t know how to see the reality? What is the difference, or is there one? Could the person doing it even get so deep into the act that they themselves don’t know the difference anymore?

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North American Indian Sign Language

North American Indian Sign Language by Karen Liptak, 1990, 1995.

This book is going to be one of three I’m planning to cover on the same topic because this book includes a list of recommended reading about North American Indian Sign Language, and I happen to have two other sources from that list in my collection. The other books I have are much older, and I’d like to compare them to this newer book and explain why the newer one does things differently.

To begin with, older books about this topic frequently just use the term “Indian” or “American Indian” to refer to Native Americans. This particular book defines its terms right at the beginning. The author says, “North American Indians are currently called both American Indians and Native Americans. I have chosen the term American Indians to reflect the preference voiced in a recent informal survey at an intertribal powwow in Reno, Nevada, and to help readers find the book more easily. The signs presented in this book are based on the sign language used by the American Indians of the Great Plains.” I appreciate it when authors explain their thinking clearly.

The introductory section of the book explains the purpose and history of using sign language for intertribal communications. It starts with an example of a fictional encounter between two members of different tribes who are strangers to each other. At first, they’re not sure who the other one is and if they’re someone who can be trusted, but when they begin using sign language to signal to each other who they are and what their intentions are, they realize that they’re from tribes who are friendly with each other and that it’s safe to continue communicating.

This particular form of sign language was particularly popular among Native Americans of the Great Plains, including the Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa, and Blackfoot tribes to allow communication between tribes that did not share a common spoken language and also within tribes in situations that demanded silent communication, such as during hunting and warfare or when communicating with people who could not hear well. American Indian sign language isn’t commonly used in modern times because there are others more commonly used, but it still appears sometimes at powwows or in Native American ceremonial festivals. This book is meant to present the sign language for fun and education.

It begins by explaining basic hand and finger positions and introducing some basic vocabulary, demonstrating signals for simple words, like “I”, “You”, “Yes”, and “No.” All of the hand signs are shown in drawings with arrows to indicate movement where necessary. It also introduces how to signal that you are asking a question.

The rest of the vocabulary is presented in themed sections, introducing words for family members, counting, seasons of the year, weather, time, food, clothing, feelings. This is different from the older books about American Indian sign language, which had vocabulary words organized alphabetically, like a dictionary. I prefer the approach of the themed sections because they demonstrate related words together and provide information for forming sentences as needed, like how to indicate that a concept is past tense. Later sections build on earlier sections, like when the section about seasons draws on the earlier concepts of counting and how to ask questions to demonstrate how to ask how old someone is or how to tell someone your age.

There are also sections at the back of the book discussing other methods of communication used by Native Americans, including smoke signals, pictographs, and petroglyphs.

The book is part of a series by the same author about various aspects of Native American culture. It’s available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The FunCraft Book of Spycraft

The FunCraft Book of Spycraft by Falcon Travis and Judy Hindley, 1975, 1976.

This book is a part of a series of craft and hobby books that was first printed in Britain. It’s meant for kids who like to play at being spies, and it teaches kids how to use secret codes make disguises, and other tips and tricks for being a spy.

Much of the book focuses on different types of secret codes and techniques for sending secret messages. In fact, I would say that there is more about secret codes and messages than there is about anything else, but what they have to say is interesting. Most of the codes in the book are fairly easy, which is good for kids who are just beginning. The book explains popular codes like the pig-pen code and gives instructions for making simple code machines, like the popular code wheels for alphabet shifts. However, I enjoyed the variety and creativity of other codes and methods of sending secret messages, like the code based on music notes and the suggestion of using clocks or watches to represent semaphore figures.

The book not only explains some well-known and standard codes and signals, like semaphore and Morse code, but also explains how to adapt these codes in new ways. Morse code messages could be shown in a sequence of knots on a rope or in the placement of objects in a picture.

Some methods of sending secret messages don’t rely on codes so much as pre-arranged signals, like the placements of certain objects or arrangements of certain colors. These objects or color patterns might look completely ordinary to most people, but they can have special meanings to those who understand what each signal stands for.

The book also covers other topics related to spies, like how spy rings are organized, where messages can be concealed, types of equipment spies use, how to make maps, how to spot and interpret clues, and how to set traps.

There are also disguise tips. The book points out various ways that people can make themselves look different, like changing the way they comb their hair, changing their hair color, or trying to make themselves look older or fatter. One piece of advice about changing your skin tone by rubbing talcum powder on it to make it look lighter or cocoa powder on it to look darker sounds messy, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but the other parts seem okay. There are instructions for making a false beard, nose, and glasses and a bald-headed wig. None of these would really be convincing disguises, but they could be entertaining for kids to try to make and might be useful for Halloween costumes.

There is also a spy-themed board game in the book where one player controls a pair of spies and the other controls a pair of spycatchers. The player controlling the spies has to evade the spycatchers in order to win.

Overall, I think that the book is pretty entertaining, and kids who are really into spies and spy games would find it fun. With all of the different codes, disguise ideas, and the board game, there are plenty of fun activities to try!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (under an alternate title – The Knowhow Book of Spycraft).

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Medieval Places

Medieval Places by Sarah Howarth, 1991, 1992.

This book takes a unique approach to explaining life in the Middle Ages. It focuses on the types of places where people spent their time and what they did there. I like it that the author doesn’t rely on just one country for the descriptions of places, providing examples from various places around Europe, including Germany, France, Italy, and Iceland.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive. There is also a companion book to this one about Medieval People. The author has also written other books about people and places in different time periods.

The places described in the book are:

The Field

During the Middle Ages, most people lived in small farming communities, making their living through farming. This chapter describes the agricultural year and the feudal system, where peasants worked fields belonging to lords and gave the lords their services and food they produced in return for use of the land.

The Peasant’s Cottage

This chapter explains what a peasant’s house and living conditions were like.

The Castle

This chapter explains how castles were built and how they were used to control territory. There is also a brief description of what life in a castle was like.

The Battlefield

This chapter describes how warfare and sieges were conducted and what types of weapons were used.

The Forest

People hunted animals in forests for sport and food, but there were rules regarding who could hunt where and what types of animals they were permitted to hunt. Anyone caught breaking these rules would labeled a poacher and could suffer serious consequences.

The Law Court

There were different types of law courts in different places, and they could handle different types of cases or offenders. For example, clergy were often tried in special courts. Punishments for offenders varied with the nature of the offense. Prison wasn’t typically a punishment by itself. Dungeons were more for holding prisoners until their case was tried. After the trial, another punishment would be assigned, possibly a fine or some form of public humiliation. For more severe offenses, offenders might have a hand or an ear cut off or might be executed. However, there were some law breakers who had so many supporters that no one was ever able to bring them to justice.

The School

Most schools were church schools held in monasteries, cathedrals, and other churches. There, students would be taught Latin (the universal language of educated people all over Europe during the Middle Ages) and religious lessons. Students practiced writing lessons on wax tables or pieces of slate that could be reused. School was not a requirement, and most lower-class children did not attend, either simply helping their families on their farms or learning a trade. There were some secular trade school run by towns to teach the children of merchants some basic skills, like reading, writing, and keeping accounts.

The University

The format for modern universities began during the Middle Ages. Particularly skilled teachers, often ones who taught at church schools, who gained a reputation for their teaching ability sometimes attracted a following of scholars, and people would travel to the location where they were teaching in order to study with them. Universities grew because of the excellent reputations of individual teachers, who attracted students to come. As they grew, they developed sets of rules, sort of like the a trade guild, organizing courses for students to study and exams to test them on what they had learned. There were no age requirements for students, but they always started by studying some general knowledge subjects, like Latin and mathematics, before choosing a specialty to study, such as law, medicine, or theology.

The Road

There were various reasons why people had to travel during the Middle Ages. Nobles had to travel to to visit different parts of their estates, and peasants had to travel to bring their produce to markets. Merchants would travel in search of customers for their trades. Criminals and judges both had to travel to law courts. Messengers would carry letters. There were also soldiers and religious pilgrims. People from every level of society could be on the roads. However, the roads were rough, making travel uncomfortable, and there was always the danger of robbers.

The Port

People also traveled by ship, and merchants brought goods from other countries through ports.

The Parish Church

Local parish churches were important centers of life and religion in the community. The local church would perform baptisms, marriages, funerals, and other services for the parishioners. Because most people couldn’t understand Latin and many couldn’t read at all, priests had to use sermons and scenes painted on the walls of the church to teach people Biblical lessons. Sometimes, church buildings and the churchyards surrounding them were also used for other important community functions, like schools, hospitals, meetings to discuss local matters, and even markets, dances, and games.

The Market

People in towns practiced trades other than farming, so towns held regular market days when village farmers could come and sell their produce.

The Guildhall

Various types of merchants and craftsmen formed guilds to organize and regulate the standards for their trades and how much their goods and services would be worth. Guilds were also responsible for arranging apprenticeships for those wanting to learn specific trades.

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Medieval People

Medieval People by Sarah Howarth, 1991, 1992.

This book looks at Medieval history in terms of the different types of people in Medieval society and what their lives were like. It has examples from different countries focusing mainly on western Europe.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive. There is also a companion book to this one about Medieval Places. The author has also written other books about people and places in different time periods.

The types people included in the book are:

The Chronicler

This is an important chapter because it explains how we know many of the things we know about the Middle Ages. Some people kept chronicles of events that happened in their time. Most of the chroniclers were monks because they were usually the ones who had both the education and the time to keep written chronicles. That’s part of the reason why many chronicles have religious overtones. People who wrote chronicles not only recorded events but also considered why certain important events may have happened, and they interpreted events through their religious beliefs.

The King

Medieval society was structured in levels, and the king was the person who held the most power and authority. However, he also depended on the nobles who supported him, so he had make sure that they were satisfied with his rule and rewarded for their loyalty. A successful king had to be a successful military leader, and he rewarded the nobles who served him with gifts of land. In turn, the nobles had to serve the king militarily and successfully manage their estates, and they could attract other people to serve them by granting them some of the land that they received from the king.

The Pope

The pope is the highest leader in the Catholic Church, and during the Middle Ages, Catholicism was the major Christian denomination in western Europe. (The Greek Orthodox Church was the major Christian group in eastern Europe, and Protestantism wasn’t an option until the Reformation.) Medieval popes were different from modern ones because they were political leaders as well as spiritual ones, and they clashed with secular kings about whose authority was greater.

The Bishop

Bishops were below the pope and the archbishops in authority, but they oversaw the lower religious officials within their territory or diocese. A bishop would make sure that church buildings in his diocese were being built and properly maintained and that the clergy were doing their jobs correctly and teaching and leading their parishioners properly. He would also oversee the training of new priests. In some ways, his position would be somewhat like that of a noble within the church, answerable to people higher than himself and in charge of people below him, but aside from his position in the church, a bishop would also have obligations to the king, owing services to him. Kings often used bishops as ambassadors and advisers and even as military leaders because they were among the most educated people available. However, this sometimes put bishops in an awkward position when their kings’ demands conflicted with their orders from the pope.

The Knight

A knight was a warrior who fought on horseback. Part of the service that nobles owed to their king in exchange for grants of land was supplying him with knights when he needed them. In the early Middle Ages, the status knighthood was a reward for excellent performance as a soldier, but later, there were rituals associated with knighthood, including that knighthood could only be granted by a king.

The Pilgrim

Pilgrims were travelers going to religious shrines. Some shrines were fairly close to the places where they lived, and some were far away, in major cities like Rome and Jerusalem. Pilgrims hoped to spiritually connect with the saints associated with the shrines they visited in order to ask for their help with some special purpose, such as recovery from an illness or the forgiveness of their sins.

The Lady

Women in Medieval society were subject to the authority of their fathers up until their marriage, and then, they were under the authority of their husbands. Money was a consideration when marriages were arranged, and marriages could be arranged for wealthy heiresses when they were very young. Married women had the task of managing their husband’s household and accounts, supervising the servants, and making cloth and clothing for her household. Women who did not marry might become nuns. Some liked the religious and scholarly life of a nun, but others simply became nuns because they had no other options and their families didn’t know what else to do with them.

The Herald

Knights always wore full armor when they fought, including a visor that covered the face. In order to know who was who, knights had special crests or coats of arms, which included identifying symbols and colors. Knights could wear their coat of arms on a tunic over their armor, have it displayed on a banner, and on coats on their horses. The herald was the person who kept track of everyone’s coat of arms, ensuring that they were all unique and settling disputes between knights who tried to claim the same combination of colors and symbols.

The Monk

Monks and nuns devoted their lives to prayer and meditation. Their days were organized around prayer, but they also performed manual labor, producing food for the monastery where they lived. Other tasks involved copying the Bible or prayer books and making clothing or medicine for the poor.

The Doctor

There were many dangers from illness during the Middle Ages, particularly the Black Death in the 14th century, when about a third of the population of Europe died. Doctors often didn’t understand the causes of illness, and not all doctors and healers even had any formal training. Wealthy people could afford doctors with more training. Cures often included combinations of herbs and various experimental substances, like crushed bugs or even gold and pearls. They had reasons for choosing the substances they did to put in medicine, but because they were lacking knowledge of the true nature of disease, their choices were often flawed.

The Heretic

Although the Catholic Church was the major form of Christianity in western Europe and widely regarded as the “true” Christian religion, religious beliefs were not completely uniform in the population. People whose beliefs seriously conflicted with the Church would be labeled as “heretics.” Because the Church believed that heretics’ souls were in danger, they could use severe punishments and even execution or the threat of it to force them to change or to stop spreading their messages to other people, thus endangering their souls.

The Mason

Masons were responsible for the great building projects of the Middle Ages, like castles and cathedrals. Some of these great buildings kept a staff on site to handle repairs, but some masons were itinerant, moving from site to site as necessary.

The Merchant

Merchants had to travel frequently to obtain and trade goods, some of them even from other countries. Towns would hold fairs at regular intervals where merchants would gather to sell their goods. Merchants with highly desirable goods could become very wealthy, and some people thought that they often got above their station in society, living like nobility.