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The things you find when you're looking for public domain images to spice up a blog post. Can anybody reading this comment about this particular collection?

The things you find when you’re looking for public domain images to spice up a blog post. Can anybody reading this comment about this particular collection?

Simplia squinted into the pages of her new-to-her second-hand Chicago Manual of Style that she had just purchased at the Friends of the Library booksale.

“What are you up to now?” asked Sagacia.

Simplia rolled a sheet of 20% cotton bond into her little black Royal typewriter.

“Making a bibliography,” she said. “Did you see all the recommendations our Magical Friends sent for Princess in Pittsburg? All those fairy tale collections from all those other places in the world that aren’t Europe and North America! It’s enough recreational reading to last me the rest of my life. I think other people should know about these collections, too, not just the Pittsburg Princess.”

“What a lovely notion,” said Sagacia. “How are we going to make your bibliography available?”

“We’ll worry about that when as soon as I’ve finished. You know my attention span. It might take awhile.”

Sagacia went back to her knitting. She was the Simpleton who actually finished the projects she started.

Simplia got to work:

Joseph Jacobs — Indian Fairy Tales (Recommended by Charles Kiernan.)

K. Ramanujan — Folktales from India
The Flowering Tree (Rec.: Tarkabarka “Very well researched and drawing from diverse ethnic and cultural sources ((instead of just “from India”)).)

Inea Bushnaq — Arab Folktales (Rec: Adam Hoffman & Tarkabarka)

…to which Mary Grace Ketner, who, it happened, had dropped in on the Simpletons with a loaf of warm gingerbread, responded: “I love Inea Bushnaq’s collection, too! In case it’s new to some readers, I have summaries of some of her stories on my Web site at http://talesandlegends.net/arabian-persian/index.html.”

Khairat Al-Saleh — Fabled Cities, Princes and Jinn (Rec: Tarkabarka again. “Outside of ‘Arabian Nights.’”)
Ignac Kunos — Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales (Rec: Tarkabarka yet again.
(“One of my favorite Hungarian collectors. Also available online, but it is a great collection to have. Lovely dragon stories.”)

…Simplia thought, while waiting for the White-Out to dry, Heckfire! That Tarkabarka lady’s on a roll.

Barbara Walker — Art of the Turkish Tale (2 volumes)
Turkish Folk Tales
Turkish Tales for children (Rec: Marilyn McPhie. “Or is Turkey too European for this list?)

…Sagacia, reading over Simplia’s shoulder, said, “I think Turkey is fine for this list.”

…So did Mary Grace Ketner. She said, “Barbara and Warren Walker’s archive of Turkish Oral Narrative at Texas Tech is now online at http://aton.ttu.edu. It’s the world’s largest collection of Turkish tales, from which Barbara’s two-volume book was drawn.”

…Simplia raised an impressed eyebrow.

Sir John Rhys — Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx”
Duncan Williamson — collections on Scottish Travelers tales and culture
Sorche nic Leodhas — collections of Scottish stories and folklore (Rec: Barra the Bard.)

…”Okay,” said Simplia, “how am I going to put this in bibliographic form? Barra goes on to say, ‘How can we overlook the delightful translations by Priscilla Howe of Hodja tales, deep in Storytell’s archives, or the treasures that Yoel Perez posts? Oh. I know. I’ll chase down the link.”

And she was out of her chair like a shot. There were still recommendations to add to the list, but Sagacia, long familiar with Simplia’s attention span, knew they would be added to the bibliography another day. The lovely thing about bibliographies is that there’s always room for one more. Or several. Or an entire boatload.

Here’s that link to Priscilla Howe’s Hodja stories:
http://www.story-lovers.com/listshodjastories.html
And we’re having trouble finding where in the Archives one might find Yoel Perez’s treasures. (Help?)

We’re curious to know over which Pittsburg the Princess reigns. There are dozens of Pittsburgs in the U.S. and a couple in Canada. We know she doesn’t live in Pennsylvania, where the homophonic place name ends with a stealth “h.” Princess, if you’re out there, shoot us your zip code.