I have a couple of friends who are certified storytellers. It's almost a lost art. In ancient times, when most people couldn't read or write, storytelling was essential. Children were trained from an early age to repeat the stories to the next generation.
In early America storytelling was the most popular form of entertainment.
Last night a friend gave me an article about a man named Walter Swan. A plasterer with a wife and eight children and no education to speak of.
He's also a storyteller. At some point he decided to write down his stories exactly the way he told them to his children.
Then he tried to sell them - but we who try to sell stories to New York publishers know how that goes.
So he went about selling his book of stories himself. He even opened a bookstore. His store sells one book. His.
The book is called "me 'n Henry."
Mr. Swan says they're all true stories. Also no bad words and no big words.
People seem to like the one about me gettin' my finger stuck in the Model-T car or the time the billy goat et my first-grade reader. But the funniest is my father accidentally drinkin' a pitcher full of my polliwogs.
I hope that, no matter how successful Mr. Swan gets as an author and an entrepreneur, he'll still retain his storytelling skills. As I said, it's almost a lost art.
***
