An Old Book

January has been good to Anansi and me. People have been very kind, both in letting the rascally spider dangle from their web rafters to the wonderful comments left by all the many visitors. In a couple of comments people were interested in the old book from which I took the stories.

It is call, Jamaica Anansi Stories and was published in 1924. Martha Warren Beckwith traveled to Jamaica in the early 20s and recorded story tellers. She then returned to the United States and faithfully transcribed them in the original dialect. For those who might be interested in reading the stories in their original form, the book has been republished and is available on Amazon.

The book I have came to us through my grandmother's second husband. How it survived the tropics is a miracle in itself. When you open it, it has that distinct musty odor of old book. The pages are brown and brittle. Because the paper it was printed on is not acid free it will, in time, probably disintegrate. 

A few years before Hurricane Marilyn ripped the roof off the family home in 1995, my sister gave the book to me for safe keeping. And so, for now, it lives in air conditioned comfort along side other old books that have survived not only the tropics, but my childhood as well.

The pages even include music, which unfortunately I can't read. But it is a wonderful thing that even some melodies have been preserved. You can see all my sticky notes, stories I've marked as possible candidates for retelling.

Today Anansi is thrilled to be visiting with Carol Kilgore at Under the Tiki Hut. He is anticipating dangling among palm fronds, sipping cool pina coladas and eating "plenty mango dem."

You might also enjoy a short interview Carol did with me. Hope to see you there!

And don't forget, you have until February 16th to enter for a chance to win a copy of Anansi and Company at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow.