Every culture has its own trickster character. The Southern Appalachian Mountain trickster is Jack, whom readers may know from traditional stories like Jack in the Giants Newground and Jack and the Bean Tree.
The stories in Trickster Jack, which focus on the shenanigans of Jack and his older brothers, are actually tall tales emerging from Reid Gilberts tricky imagination. Set in the Southern Appalachians around the end of the nineteenth century, these tales describe actual activities of the time, such as making a wooden wagon with white oak rounds for wheels, fetching water from wells with windlasses, and using outdoor outhouses.

Trickster Jack introduces those readers from outside the Appalachians to some of the ways and manners of that region, while reacquainting Appalachians themselves with their own heritage. Regardless of where you hail, there is plenty in this whimsical collection to delight and entertain you.

Every culture has its own trickster character. The Southern Appalachian Mountain trickster is Jack, whom readers may know from traditional stories like "Jack in the Giant's Newground" and "Jack and the Bean Tree."
The stories in Trickster Jack, which focus on the shenanigans of Jack and his older brothers, are actually tall tales emerging from Reid Gilbert's tricky imagination. Set in the Southern Appalachians around the end of the nineteenth century, these tales describe actual activities of the time, such as making a wooden wagon with white oak rounds for wheels, fetching water from wells with windlasses, and using outdoor outhouses.

Trickster Jack introduces those readers from outside the Appalachians to some of the ways and manners of that region, while reacquainting Appalachians themselves with their own heritage. Regardless of where you hail, there is plenty in this whimsical collection to delight and entertain you.

Table of Contents

Tricksters or, The Globalization of Foolery 

Jack and the Candlestick

Little Jack Horner 

Jack Plays Mother Goose 

Jack’s Childhood Sweetheart

Jack’s New Wagon

Jack’s End of a Romance 

Penny Saved

Jack’s Diet

Old Jack

Old Jack’s Indoor-Outhouse

The Jack Game