Trickster Tales — Josepha Sherman

People of all ages love to watch the escapades of tricksters. In modern times, we watch Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote -- even Ace Ventura and Bart Simpson. But these contemporary characters have roots in antiquity. The trickster is a universal archetype, found in every culture: Anansi among the African people, Coyote in the American Southwest, Raven in the Pacific Northwest, Rabbit in the American South, the leprechaun in Ireland, Fox in South America. Josepha Sherman has collected forty stories of tricksters from around the globe. Sometimes human, sometimes animal, most often male (but occasionally female, as Sherman demonstrates), the trickster is like a force of nature, an Id unchecked by Superego. He is the sort of being who says, while acting on impulse,"What happens if I do this? What will happen next?" These stories come from a variety of cultures, including ancient Babylon, Botswana, China, India, Eastern Europe, Morocco, Central and South America, and the Creole, African-American, Algonquin, Apache, and Blackfoot peoples in North America. Sherman's notes cite bibliographic sources and folklore motifs. Each major section includes an ornate line drawing by David Boston.