American Tall Tale
The tall tale is a fundamental element of American folk literature. The tall tale's origins are seen in the bragging contests that often occurred when the rough men of the American frontier gathered. The tales of legendary figures of the Old West, some listed below, owe much to the style of tall tales.
The bi-annual speech contests optionally held by Toastmasters International public speaking clubs may include a Tall Tales contest. Each participating speaker is given three to five minutes to give a short speech of a tall tale nature, and is then judged according to several factors. The winner and runner-up proceed to the next level of competition. The contest does not proceed beyond any participating district in the organization to the International level.
The comic strip Non Sequitur sometimes features tall tales told by the character Captain Eddie; it is left up to the reader to decide if he is telling the truth, exaggerating a real event, or just telling a whopper.
With "§" indicating legendary figures who are known to be based on actual historical individuals, other subjects of American tall tales include:
- Johnny Appleseed – A friendly folk-hero who traveled the West planting apple trees because he felt his guardian angel told him to §
- Tony Beaver – A West Virginia lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan
- Pecos Bill – legendary cowboy who "tamed the wild west"
- Cordwood Pete – Younger brother to lumberjack Paul Bunyan
- Daniel Boone – Blazed a trail across Cumberland Gap to found the first English-speaking colonies west of the Appalachian Mountains §
- Aylett C. "Strap" Buckner – An Indian-fighter of colonial Texas §
- Paul Bunyan – huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in one minute
- Davy Crockett – A pioneer and U.S. Congressman from Tennessee who later died at the Battle of the Alamo §
- Febold Feboldson – A Nebraska farmer who could fight a drought
- Mike Fink – The toughest boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a rival of Davy Crockett. Also known as the King of the Mississippi River Keelboatmen §
- John Henry – A mighty steel-driving African American§
- Calamity Jane – A tough Wild West woman §
- Casey Jones – A brave and gritty railroad engineer §
- Johnny Kaw, a fictional Kansan whose mythological status itself was in one sense a figment, in that it was created recently, in 1955. Adherents of this assessment deem such stories fakelore
- Nat Love, also known as "Deadwood Dick", was born a slave in Tennessee in 1854. Tales of his adventures after emancipation, as a cowboy and and a Pullman porter, gained such fantastical elements as to be considered tall tales §
- Joe Magarac – A Pittsburgh steelworker made of steel
- Molly Pitcher – A heroine of the American Revolutionary War §
- Alfred Bulltop Stormalong – An immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon
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Famous quotes containing the words tall tale, american, tall and/or tale:
“Tall tales were told of the sociability of the Texans, one even going so far as to picture a member of the Austin colony forcing a stranger at the point of a gun to visit him.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is a thing which every sensible American should learn from every sensible Englishman, that glare and glitter, gimcracks and gewgaws, are not indispensable to domestic solacement.”
—Herman Melville (18191891)
“The daily arguments over putting away the toys or practicing the piano defeat us so easily. We see them coming yet they frustrate us time and time again. In many cases, we are mothers and fathers who have managed budgets and unruly bosses and done difficult jobs well through sheer tenacity and dogged preparation. So why are we unable to persuade someone three feet tall to step into six inches of water at bathtime?”
—Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)
“Life is not at all what you might think it to be
A simple tale where each thing has its history
Its much more than its scuffle and anything goes
Both evil and good, subject to the same laws.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)