"How many of you have heard of Joel Chandler Harris?" asked last Friday's Institute for Women Studies speaker to a room full of 50 students and faculty members.
A few people raised their hands, and Amanda Gailey, a second year assistant professor in the University of Georgia English department, chucked as she recognized that it was only her colleges and own students that were aware of her favorite author.
"Not many," she said as she sipped hot coffee. "Good, I was hoping you wouldn't already know."
However, this lack of knowledge is baffling to Gailey. Only 100 years ago was Harris, better know as Uncle Remus, the second most popular author in America only to his good friend Mark Twain.
"Both men made outstanding literary careers. But Harris fell to obscurity, while Twain remained popular," said Gailey.
Harris took on many more risks than Twain, or any other author in his time according to Gailey. Harris's writings promoted domesticity, loyalty to family and gave a sense of humanity to people, including black men and women, which much more closely aligned with what Gailey repeatedly referred to as traditional "women's fiction."
Harris and his son Julian Harris also spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in the South designed to promote white supremacy through violent acts and terrorism towards African Americans and other minorities. These writings caused Julian Harris to not only go bankrupt, but to also win the Pulitzer Prize, said Gailey.
Harris also took risk by starting the "Uncle Remus Home Magazine." According to Gailey, this risk proved to be a smart one because by the end of the first year Harris's subscriptions had jumped from 100,000 to 240,000 subscribers.
The magazine itself also was very different and took risks that were aimed at accomplishing Harris's goals of promoting family and "building racial sympathies," said Gailey.
The magazine had a women's section, book reviews- one even under a female pen name, articles by Billy Sanders- Harris's white alter ego, an Uncle Remus tale, and other sections that would be fitting with a domestically centered "Home" magazine in the early 1900s.
Harris had a strong editorial hand in the magazine, as well as in his books. He strongly believed in showing "dignified pictures of minorities" in order to soften the racial barriers, and refused to work with Edward Kemble in his book "On the Plantation," said Gailey.
Kemble was a renowned illustrator of his time, and worked closely with Twain on several of his works, reported Gailey.
"Kemble felt the negro to be [his] specialty even though he had never been to the South, and used a white child as his model," said Gailey as her audience laughed at the ludicrous irony of Kemble's beliefs.
Harris preferred to work with A.B. Frost on illustrations both for his children's books and his magazine. Frost's work showed pictures of a dignified black male, who was normally clothes, and seemed nurturing and approachable.
These drawings were in direct contrast with the Kemble examples Gailey showed. Gailey pointed out that Kemble depicted African Americans as scary, screaming characters with "monkey-like features," instead of the dignified and "real" pictures Harris required.
The "Uncle Remus Home magazine" continued for five more years after Harris's death under the supervision of his son Julian Harris.
However, according to Gailey, Julian Harris "did not use the same editorial powers as his father."
Instead he allowed Kemble to submit drawings, and published advertisements featuring African Americans in a derogatory light. Some articles even mocked their religious beliefs and songs.
However, this is not the real Harris and Gailey thinks that people can learn a lot from this once famous author. This is why she has started a project "that keeps growing," in her opinion.
The project will create an archive that will digitize Uncle Remus books and other Harris writings to make them "searchable."
She believes that not only will this archive help people like the ones in the classroom last Friday learn about Joel Chandler Harris and his contribution to society, but also about other authors who had similar impacts.
The archive has no official scheduled completion date, but will focus on "how adults wanted children to think about race during the Gilded Age (1865-1909)," said Gailey.
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