Minstrels of the Mine Patch: Songs and Stories of the Anthracite Industry (Anniversary Collection)

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas. Preface 7 Contents 9 Introduction 13 1. The Mine Patch 25 2. Miners in Good Humor 49 3. Boy Colliers 106 4. Slavs as Miners 137 5. Superstitions and Legends 151 6. Injury and Death 190 7. The Strike 216 8. The Molly Maguires 252 9. A Miscellany 281 Appendix: Biographical Sketches of Traditional Bards and Minstrels 301 Glossary of Anthracite Technical and Colloquial Words and Phrases 323 Bibliography 333 Index 339