Ten Traditional Tellers

Ten Traditional Tellers gives vivid glimpses of the social roles of verbal artists from ten very different oral traditional cultures. Letting the tellers speak for themselves, Margaret Read MacDonald has allowed ideas to emerge that are often surprising.

Jo Radner, Board of Directors, National Storytelling Network

These case studies, together with their accompanying stories, are rich, diverse, and a cheering reminder of the continuing vigour of traditional storytelling today.

Fiona Collins, Carrog, Wales...Folklore

A successful melange of interviews and tales. ...presents not only interviews but also a window into why(and to whom) they tell, how their repertoires are built, and their initiation as teller...ends with an interrogation of the term "traditional"...and existent graduations between what is a traditional versus a revivalist teller...would serve well as source material for a course focusing on storytelling, oral history, or oral traditon....Wanda G. Addison, National University, San Diego...Western Folklore V. 68

Wanda G. Addison, National University, San Diego...Western Folklore V. 68

MacDonald is a folklorist, storyteller, and author who has brought many traditional tales to life for modern listeners. Her portraits here open windows into unfamiliar cultures and affirm the value of story. A book that is well documented

SLJ 12/1/06

Margaret Read MacDonald is to be commended for her discussion of storytelling from the perspectives of the tellers. Drawing from the interviews, she includes the first-hand information for which oral historians look...In doing so, she presents insights into storytelling that help define the nuances of understanding which take the reader beyond the stories into the telling.

Barbara W. Sommers...The Oral History Review Winter-Spring 2007

In Ten Traditional Tellers, Margaret Read MacDonald provides a very accessible overview of the thoughts and perspectives of a small selection of tradition bearers regarding the transmission and preservation of their people's stories

Of particular interest is the nonjudgmental manner in which Mac-Donald demonstrates how the tellers that she has profiled fit into a spectrum of tradition; she identifies ten gradations along that spectrum, extending from the purely traditional to the exclusively revivalist teller. The differences that she identifies here are important to consider when theorizing about oral narrative

Journal of American Folklore, Summer 2011, 234-236

MacDonald documents the important work of traditional tellers in preserving a way of life and a sense of the culture in the contemporary world. Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers. M.L.Jackson, Florida State University

Choice March 2007

We observe a series of case studies that are unique in some way, yet are connected to each other by the storyteller's enthusiasm for their respective culture and the author's sensible empathy.

Art Leete, University of Tartu, Estonia...Asian Folklore Studies

...in an apparently effortless style...disarming and unexpected at times...Across a diverse range of languages and cultures the story itself becomes liquid almost escaping any dry scholarly attempt at strict definition....This book illustrates that new skills, new media, and new vernacular worlds dictate that there are many gradations of tradition.

Stiofan O Cadhla, National University of Ireland...Journal of Folklore Research Review

"MacDonald has provided a valuable contribution to the study of oral narratives and storytelling. . . . Ten Traditional Tellers is a solid contribution to the popularization of folklore and brings needed attention to wonderful storytellers."

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale