Pilot Report

The legacy of a writer is a complex thing. Most of the time, successful writers are credited with inventing worlds that come from their imaginations. They create stories that are woven from their observations about human behavior, and generally these stories are perceived to come from their own perspectives. There are plenty of theories around that suggest that a writer is much more than an individual imagination, and that the work is always connected to their own place in history. This notion helps to illuminate some of the more complex works in literature, and has given Uncle Remus another life.

The creation of Joel Chandler Harris at the end of the 19th century has enjoyed and suffered praise and criticism, and it seems to come and go in a cyclical manner. These days, people visiting the city of Atlanta can take a tour of The Wren’s Nest , his home here, which was restored and now serves as a museum to preserve African-American literature.

His stories, written in his version of a slave dialect, were popular in his lifetime, and even Mark Twain was said to have loved the man and his work (this, of course, was someone who didn’t really like anybody, so it’s no small accomplishment). The next generations were very uncomfortable with some of the writer’s comments, along with the stereotypes that are inherent in the work.

However, the recent wave has reclaimed his stories as a very important literature in the history of the country, and in the history of African-American storytelling in general. Uncle Remus is once again recognized as a very elemental trickster figure, that demonstrates a kind of revolution and repetition of stories that are very old, and have been passed down through slave voices in new ways. It makes for some very interesting ways of looking at history, and a tour of the museum is amazingly eye-opening.

This is a point where history and culture can merge with art, and visitors to the city staying at Atlanta boutique hotels can enjoy getting to know the deeper histories that run through this part of the world.

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