Lost Delta Found: Rediscovering the Fisk University-Library of Congress Coahoma County Study, 1941-1942

Author: Adams Jr., Samuel C.
Author: Jones, Lewis Wade
Author: Work, John W.
Editor: Gordon, Robert
Editor: Nemerov, Bruce

These original documents . . . paint a compellingly accurate portrait of the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s. . . . Work, Jones, and Adams are finally getting their due at a time when Mississippi... — MOJO More…

ISBN: 9780826514868 (0826514863)
Edition Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Pages: 360
Date Published: 30th Apr 2020

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Acknowledgments
Preface from Robert Gordone
Introductory Chapter from Gordon and Nemerov
Introduction to Jones by Nemerov
'The Mississippi Delta' by Lewis W. Jones
Introduction to Work by Nemerov.
John Work manuscript, untitled
The discussion of Charles Haffer includes three sheets of his broadsides.
158 music original transcriptions.
Introduction to Adams by Nemerov
'Changing Negro Life in the Delta' by Samuel C. Adams
Appendices
1. The Natchez fire
2. A memorandum about the July trip to Coahoma County
3. Report on Preliminary Work in Clarksdale, Mississippi
4. Memorandum from Jones to Johnson
5. List of songs on Clarksdale jukeboxes
Bibliography
Index

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Blues Hall of Fame Inductee, 2019 - A "Classic of Blues Literature"

In 1941 and '42 African American scholars from Fisk University-among them the noted composer and musicologist John W. Work III, sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, and graduate student Samuel C. Adams Jr.-joined folklorist Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress on research trips to Coahoma County, Mississippi. Their mission was "to document adequately the cultural and social backgrounds for music in the community." Among the fruits of the project were the earliest recordings by the legendary blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. The hallmark of the study was to have been a joint publication of its findings by Fisk and the Library of Congress. While this publication was never completed, Lost Delta Found is composed of the writings, interviews, notes, and musical transcriptions produced by Work, Jones, and Adams in the Coahoma County study. Their work captures, with compelling immediacy, a place, a people, a way of life, and a set of rich musical traditions as they existed in the 1940s.

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These original documents . . . paint a compellingly accurate portrait of the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s. . . . Work, Jones, and Adams are finally getting their due at a time when Mississippi seems consumed with righting its past wrongs

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