Collins, Kaye Carver, Cheek, Angie & Foxfire Students, eds. Foxfire 12; the new book in the classic series on simple living in America.

COLLINS, Kaye Carver, CHEEK, Angle & FOXFIRE STUDENTS, eds. Foxfire 12; the new book in the classic series on simple living in America. Random House, Anchor. 560p. illus. index. c2004. 1-4000-3261-X. $16.95. JSA 

This volume is a continuation of the charming, informative Foxfire miscellanies, begun in 1966 as a quarterly journal covering mountain mores, pastimes, and lifestyles. Layout combines six first-person memoirs and eight accounts of world wars with articles on potting face jugs, stringed instrument crafting, lining homemade coffins with satin, and simmering and rolling rose beads. The last two sections pair six examples of Cherokee lore with three reflections on summer camps. Illustrating folksy narratives are photos of a banjo, a profile of a legendary goat man, two poses of "swing your partner," and a sketch of Mountain Grove Baptist Church before its destruction by tornado in 1932. The editors carry on the tradition begun by teacher Eliot Wigginton of enlivening the compendium with dialect anecdotes and interviews that recover ethnic customs. Schematic drawings replicate the arrangement of a summer camp and the building of a slatted chair. For students of mountain clogging, square dancing, and buck dance, a series of calls explains the complex movements of right-hand star, allemande, circling, and birdie or crow in the cage. For its broad range of subjects, this work is a valuable addition to school, church, public, and home libraries. Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Hickory, NC