Book Description

John Hay, Private Secretary to Abraham Lincoln, newspaper editor, Secretary of State for two Presidents and an Ambassador, published the Pike County Ballads in 1871. The ballads, known as dialect poems were widely circulated in his day, and after 40 years were reproduced with young artist N.C. Wyeth adding valuable illustrations. Although Mark Twain is credited with introducing an earthy vernacular to post-bellum American literature with Huckleberry Finn, there is ample evidence that Twain was very much influenced by his friend John Hay, whose Pike County Ballads preceded Huck Finn by 14 years. Pike County Illinois following the Civil War proved to be fertile ground for John Hay's characterizations - Pike County, Illinois is just across the Mississippi from Hannibal, Missouri where Samuel Langhorne Clemens grew up. These dialect poems are a must read for everyone interested in post Civil War literature, and in the wit of that period. This edition contains introductory comments by three Illinois scholars familiar with John Hay and Pike County.