| PAUL BUNYAN: The Invention of an American Legend “What do you do when you find out that a story you loved as a kid is a tall tale spun by an advertising man intent on justifying the clear-cutting of our ancestral lands by lumber companies?” —Lee Francis IV, foreword. Lumberjacks—big men with big appetites and bigger axes like Big Joe Mufferaw, Otto Walta, and George Knox—frequently starred in tales told on long winter nights in the logging camps of nineteenth century America. The story of Paul Bunyan, the most legendary lumberjack of them all, crossed over into the mainstream and has been a childhood staple for more than a century. But few people realize, even today, that Bunyan and his faithful blue ox were the product of a logging industry marketing campaign. In Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend , cartoonist Noah Van Sciver heads back to Minnesota in 1914 to uncover the creation of an American myth. The book takes place during a snowy train journey, when W. B. Laughead, a real-life advertising impresario employed by Minnesota’s Red River Timber Company, spins a yarn for his fellow travelers. In Laughead’s hands, a regional folk figure grows tall enough to touch the clouds, becoming the star of a colorful tale of frontier life that has obscured, for too long, the logging industry’s wholesale devastation of the region’s old-growth forests and its role in the systematic dispossession of Native peoples from their land and way of life. A TOON GRAPHIC INTEREST LEVEL: Age 6+ READING LEVEL: Grade 3+ LEXILE READING LEVEL: GN750L AUTHORS: Noah Van Sciver ADDITIONAL STORIES AND ART: Marlena Myles LANGUAGE: English PAGES: 48 DIMENSIONS: 7.75" x 10" HC ISBN: 978-1-66266-522-6 PB ISBN: 978-1-66266-523-3 Pub date: August 8, 2023 Read more about Marlena Myles. Rave reviews are pouring in: "Van Sciver is a master of subtle mockery." –The New York Times, Children's Book Feature ★ ★ ★ "Readers will come away ready to question what other falsehoods they’ve been fed about the history of marginalized people . . . An accessible and important reminder of how easily the truth can be coopted." – Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW "Enlightening. . . . [A] frank and accessible depiction of the environmental and economic impact of boom-bust industries . . . and how the Bunyan fiction perpetuated these systems." – Publishers Weekly "The combined cartoon and folk art styles work well to capture the giant lore of Paul Bunyan . . . A mighty attempt to take on a giant topic of forgotten history."– Booklist About the Authors NOAH VAN SCIVER is an award-winning cartoonist who grew up in a Mormon family in New Jersey. As far back as he remembers, he always loved the Paul Bunyan story and was eager to find out more about its origins. He was amused when he found out that William B. Laughead, the story’s creator, was a cartoonist as well as an advertising man. Van Sciver is the author of critically acclaimed and best-selling graphic novels, including One Dirty Tree , the Fante Bukowski: Struggling Writer series, and Joseph Smith and the Mormon s. He has received mutiple Eisner nominations and was a regular contributor to MAD Magazine. He currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife and child. MARLENA MYLES is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake Dakota/ Mohegan/Muscogee) artist who grew up on her traditional Dakota homelands. Her work includes children’s books, murals, fabrics, and augmented reality. Her fine art has been shown in places like the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Red Cloud Heritage Center, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art, to name a few. She enjoys using the land as a teacher to share with Minnesotans of all backgrounds the Indigenous history of this place we all call home. She runs her own Dakota publishing company, Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions, to create a wider platform that educates and honors the culture, language, and history of Dakota people. She currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. LEE FRANCIS IV is the Executive Director of Native Realities, an Indigenous Imagination organization that seeks to engage and inspire Indigenous youth and communities through pop culture media and culturally dynamic programming. Dr. Francis also founded the Indigenous Comic Con (now IndigiPop Expo) and opened Red Planet Books and Comics, the first Native comic shop in the world, in 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Texas State University and currently resides in North Carolina with his family. DR. DEONDRE SMILES is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. He is of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent and is a proud citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Dr. Smiles's interests are many and include Indigenous geographies, human-environment interactions, and Indigenous cultural resource management and preservation. He serves as the principal investigator for the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory, one of Western Canada’s first Indigenous geographies-focused labs. A tall tale with deep roots . . .in profit-making! For more information on ordering Paul Bunyan for your library, store or classroom, check it out on Edelweiss ! |
PAUL BUNYAN: The Invention of an American Legend | |
“What do you do when you find out that a story you loved as a kid is a tall tale spun by an advertising man intent on justifying the clear-cutting of our ancestral lands by lumber companies?” —Lee Francis IV, foreword.
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Lumberjacks—big men with big appetites and bigger axes like Big Joe Mufferaw, Otto Walta, and George Knox—frequently starred in tales told on long winter nights in the logging camps of nineteenth century America. The story of Paul Bunyan, the most legendary lumberjack of them all, crossed over into the mainstream and has been a childhood staple for more than a century. But few people realize, even today, that Bunyan and his faithful blue ox were the product of a logging industry marketing campaign.
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In Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend, cartoonist Noah Van Sciver heads back to Minnesota in 1914 to uncover the creation of an American myth. The book takes place during a snowy train journey, when W. B. Laughead, a real-life advertising impresario employed by Minnesota’s Red River Timber Company, spins a yarn for his fellow travelers. In Laughead’s hands, a regional folk figure grows tall enough to touch the clouds, becoming the star of a colorful tale of frontier life that has obscured, for too long, the logging industry’s wholesale devastation of the region’s old-growth forests and its role in the systematic dispossession of Native peoples from their land and way of life. | |
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A TOON GRAPHIC
INTEREST LEVEL: Age 6+
READING LEVEL: Grade 3+
LEXILE READING LEVEL: GN750L
AUTHORS: Noah Van Sciver
ADDITIONAL STORIES AND ART: Marlena Myles
LANGUAGE: English
PAGES: 48
DIMENSIONS: 7.75" x 10"
HC ISBN: 978-1-66266-522-6
PB ISBN: 978-1-66266-523-3 | |
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Read more about Marlena Myles. | | |
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Rave reviews are pouring in: | |
★★★ "Readers will come away ready to question what other falsehoods they’ve been fed about the history of marginalized people . . . An accessible and important reminder of how easily the truth can be coopted."
–Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW
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"Enlightening. . . . [A] frank and accessible depiction of the environmental and economic impact of boom-bust industries . . . and how the Bunyan fiction perpetuated these systems."
–Publishers Weekly
"The combined cartoon and folk art styles work well to capture the giant lore of Paul Bunyan . . . A mighty attempt to take on a giant topic of forgotten history."–Booklist
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NOAH VAN SCIVER is an award-winning cartoonist who grew up in a Mormon family in New Jersey. As far back as he remembers, he always loved the Paul Bunyan story and was eager to find out more about its origins. He was amused when he found out that William B. Laughead, the story’s creator, was a cartoonist as well as an advertising man. Van Sciver is the author of critically acclaimed and best-selling graphic novels, including One Dirty Tree, the Fante Bukowski: Struggling Writer series, and Joseph Smith and the Mormons. He has received mutiple Eisner nominations and was a regular contributor to MAD Magazine. He currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife and child. | |
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MARLENA MYLES is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake Dakota/ Mohegan/Muscogee) artist who grew up on her traditional Dakota homelands. Her work includes children’s books, murals, fabrics, and augmented reality. Her fine art has been shown in places like the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Red Cloud Heritage Center, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art, to name a few. She enjoys using the land as a teacher to share with Minnesotans of all backgrounds the Indigenous history of this place we all call home. She runs her own Dakota publishing company, Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions, to create a wider platform that educates and honors the culture, language, and history of Dakota people. She currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. | |
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LEE FRANCIS IV is the Executive Director of Native Realities, an Indigenous Imagination organization that seeks to engage and inspire Indigenous youth and communities through pop culture media and culturally dynamic programming. Dr. Francis also founded the Indigenous Comic Con (now IndigiPop Expo) and opened Red Planet Books and Comics, the first Native comic shop in the world, in 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Texas State University and currently resides in North Carolina with his family.
DR. DEONDRE SMILES is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. He is of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent and is a proud citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Dr. Smiles's interests are many and include Indigenous geographies, human-environment interactions, and Indigenous cultural resource management and preservation. He serves as the principal investigator for the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory, one of Western Canada’s first Indigenous geographies-focused labs.
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A tall tale with deep roots
. . .in profit-making! | |
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For more information on ordering Paul Bunyan for your library, store or classroom, check it out on Edelweiss! | |
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