Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Eldred Kurtz Means" in English language version.
While many of his black characters can read, their language – and it may have basis as dialect – keeps them apart from the whites.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Abstract: The stories in this volume were written because of my interest in the stories themselves and because of a whimsical fondness for the people of that race to whom God has given two supreme gifts — Music and laughter. For the benefit of the curious, I may say that many of the incidents in these tales are true and many of the characters and places mentioned actually exist.
"He runs in eve'y race whut doodlebug has, Pap," Shin said easily enough, ... "I bought him to beat yo' doodlebug!" "doodlebug is in de secont race to-day," ..." from E.K. Means ...: Is this a Title? It is Not. It is the Name of a Writer of by Eldred Kurtz Means (1918)
Questionable humor aside, the writings of Eldred Kurtz Means, popular then, are ignored today [in 2021] because of their racist stereotyping which contributed to white supremacist thinking in the early 1920s. Gene Andrew Jarrett summarized the problem, writing, "Means's short stories … sought to amuse readers within the grotesque and comic traditions of blackface minstrelsy".
The following passage employed nonstandard spelling. ... : "It wus a bad time for me when I come to Tickfall. I'm shore had bad luck; but ef dar warn't no bad luck, I wouldn't hab no luck at all."