Books published by University of Illinois Press

      Meet Aunt Molly Jackson (1880-1960), one of American folklore''s most         fascinating characters.       A coal miner''s daughter, she grew up in eastern Kentucky, married a miner,         and became a midwife, labor activist, and songwriter. Fusing hard experience         with rich Appalachian musical tradition, her songs became weapons of struggle.       In 1931, at age fifty, she was "discovered" and brought north,         sponsored and befriended by an illustrious circle of left-wing intellectuals         and musicians, including Theodore Dreiser, Alan Lomax, and Charles Seeger         and his son Pete. Along with Sarah Ogan Gunning, Jim Garland (two of Aunt         Molly''s half-siblings), Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and other folk musicians,         she served as a cultural broker, linking the rural working poor to big-city         left-wing activism.       Shelly Romalis draws upon interviews and archival materials to construct         this portrait of an Appalachian woman who remained radical, raucous, proud,         poetic, offensive, self-involved, and in spirit the "real" pistol         packin'' mama of the song.       "Mr. Coal operator call me anything you please, blue, green, or         red, I aim to see to it that these Kentucky coalminers will not dig your         coal while their little children are crying and dying for milk and bread."                 -- Aunt Molly Jackson