More Laughter in Appalachia: Southern Mountain Humor

by Loyal Jones, Billy Edd Wheeler, Billy Edd Wheeler (Joint Author)

Overview

The phenomenal success of Laughter in Appalachia, Loyal Jones' and Billy Edd Wheeler's first collection of humor (now in its twelfth printing), says something about the importance of humor in our lives, and the talent Jones and Wheeler have in finding the best of it. More Laughter in Appalachia, their fourth collection of Southern mountain humor, may well be their funniest and most comprehensive collection to date. Packed with humorous jokes, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and song, not to mention a nineteenth-century sermon a backwoods political speech, and a comical arrest warrant, this collection is thick with artifacts of Southern wit. Whether you are interested in humor as part of our cultural heritage or you just want a good laugh, you will find this mountain of Southern humor heartwarming and sidesplitting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874834116
Publisher:	August House Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/28/2005
Series:	American Storytelling Series
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	432,843
Product dimensions:	5.56(w) x 8.63(h) x 0.66(d)
Age Range:	5 - 17 Years

About the Author

Loyal Jones Bio:Jones was born in Marble, Cherokee County, and lived there until he was 12, when his family moved to Brasstown in Clay County. “We were farmers, living on rented land,” he said. One of eight children, Jones served a brief stint in the Navy after high school, and then worked as a farmer and horse trainer before enrolling as an undergraduate at Berea College.
Jones began writing in college, but did not publish until several years later. He has been a prolific writer with literally dozens of published articles concerning Appalachian culture and its people to his credit.
One characteristic of Jones’ writing is optimism about the resiliency of mountain people and their culture, says Ron Eller, former director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky.
Jones’ message has been that Appalachia should be judged by its own core values - family, land, traditionalism - rather than by more mainstream values of accumulation, wealth and power, Eller said. “In many ways, he represents the best of Appalachia, the part of Appalachian society that values people for what they really are.”
In his years of writing and speaking about the region, Jones has become one of its best-known and best-loved figures. In addition to the numerous articles he has written about Appalachia, he has also authored nine books, including multiple volumes on regional humor.