Foxfire Story Oral Tradition in Southern Appalachia

Foxfire Story is a retrospective collection of oral tradition stories from the archives of the Foxfire Fund. Released 28th April by Knopf Doubleday on their Anchor Books imprint, it's 336 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I grew up with the Foxfire books and fell in love with the culture and resourcefulness of the people interviewed and immortalized in the pages of the collections. Besides springing from a noble ideal (to preserve and document the rapidly disappearing culture and traditions of the Appalachian mountain area), the books were deeply interesting and full of old-fashioned, no-nonsense methods of growing and preserving food, crafting, and living, which resonated deeply with me. (I grew up in the 70s and the 'back to the land' movement was in full swing).

This collection contains stories and interviews in the same vein as the original series. It wasn't entirely clear to me (and I have not checked thoroughly), but I believe these stories and interviews weren't previously published and are gleaned from the archives. This collection is full of stories and interviews rich in humor and wit, some pathos, charm, intelligence, and a lot of faith. The photography is, as in the rest of the series, in black and white, and used sparingly but well.

This is a worthy addition to the series, despite the change in content - this collection doesn't contain any recipes or crafting content but includes stories and interviews over decades.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.