Singing Carr & other song-ballads of the Cumberlands

the long version

A collection(?) of Ballads from Eastern Ky. Bradley is credited as "author", but the preface indicates that he collected these ballads from the mountain folk. In my own reading of this volume, I wondered if maybe Bradley indeed composed these ballads as a parody/tribute to the folk who generated authentic mountain ballads, and who carried on the ballads their ancestors brought from Britain. Bradley would become the literary agent to Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller and Anais Nin, as well as author, biographer, translator.