Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, 1867-1948 (Folklore and Society) [Paperback]

Nolan Porterfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2001 | Series: Folklore and Society

Winner of the Carr P. Collins Award and the Miss Ima Hogg Historical Achievement Award, "Last Cavalier" is the never-before-told story of the remarkable life and career of John A. Lomax, pioneering American folklorist, canny businessman, influential educator, and patriarch of an extended family of artists, performers, and scholars.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

John A. Lomax may be most famous for getting the legendary songster Leadbelly out of prison in Louisiana. Trouble is, he didn't do it, though he did what he could to keep the myth that he did current, as Porterfield shows in his exhaustive examination of a unique and energetic man. Lomax said he began collecting cowboy songs as a child, and collecting, transcribing, and recording folk music was indeed his life's labor. He was most famously associated with Leadbelly, employing him as driver and assistant while he combed the South and Southwest, searching out previously unknown music and musicians. Lauded now for recording folk musicians for the Library of Congress, he also interacted crucially with the popular media of his day. Giving great attention to details and documentation, Porterfield tracks down the discrepancies between the myth of Lomax the noble researcher and the facts. The resulting biography engagingly portrays a man who, despite or maybe because of the mythmaking, contributed almost incredibly to American cultural history and lived a life enviable in its zeal for discovery. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Scholarly biography of a colorful folklorist who was equal parts academic, businessman, and hustler. Best known for spending much of the last 16 years of his life roaming the rural landscape for singers--from cowboys to convicts--who would record their folk songs, John Lomax (18671948) patched together a long career by working hard and exploiting his good- old-boy Texas persona and his old-boy university network with equal skill. First encouraged in his interest in folk music by his mentors at Harvard, Lomax solicited and collected songs from newspaper editors, educators, friends, and local officials while holding various positions at Texas A&M and the University of Texas. At both institutions he plunged into major squabbles, which are reported here with a completeness endearing only to academics. Twice, when the ivy tower became too hot, Lomax's friends got him into business, where he sold bonds with shrewdness and success. The Great Depression and ill health turned Lomax's interests back to music; he hit the road to deliver lectures and to record the tunes that so substantially increased the holdings of the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song. Even this venture wasn't free of contention, particularly when ex-convict Huddie Ledbetter, an effective singer known as Leadbelly who found fame with Lomax's help, suspected the ``Big Boss'' was getting the better part of their business deal. Porterfield, an award-winning biographer and novelist, is clearly amused by his subject, but the resulting work is as heavy on detail as it is light on insight. It would have been better, for instance, to know why Porterfield claims, despite evidence to the contrary, that young Lomax was not ``rigidly conservative'' than what he ate at a particular diner. An unblinking portrait of Lomax's eccentricities, his outspokenness, and his prejudices--including racism--keep this from dissolving into standard academic fare. (25 illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (February 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252069714
• ISBN-13: 978-0252069710
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Porterfield is to Lomax what Boswell was to Johnson., January 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, 1867-1948 (Folklore and Society) (Hardcover)

I just finished LAST CAVALIER and without question consider it the best biography I've read in years. This book may well signal John Lomax's overdue emergence as a national treasure for his collecting and preserving of thousands of cowboy songs including "Home on the Range"--as well as for bringing musical artists like Leadbelly to national attention. Lomax already is a treasure in his home state of Texas. If you're a reading Texan and/or have any interest whatsoever in country or black music, the roots of American folklore, the ambiance of the Texas mileau in the first half of this century, or a profound character study of one of the country's great promoters of native culture, this uncompromising biography was written for you. However, the book transcends regionalism both in the writing and its universal perspective and message. One practically has to go to Flaubert's rendering of Emma Bovary to find such an incisive pyschological study of someone so well-meaning and successful, and yet so flawed, as John Lomax. Porterfield makes his character so relatable and understandable that we can love and hate him at the same time--and even identify with this American original, if only from a distance. The author also renders his impeccably researched material with all the skill and technique of a first-rate novelist. He is as authoratative and compelling in his treatment of Lomax as James Boswell was with Samuel Johnson.