Bowleg Bill

Bowleg Bill is an American fakelore folk hero, a Wyoming cowboy hand who went seafaring.[1][2][3]

Books
  • Jeremiah Digges, Bowleg Bill, The Sea-Going Cowboy, Viking Press. NY. 1938. First edition ISBN 1121783597, ASIN B000ILSNLE
    • Also printed as Bowleg Bill, the sea-going cowboy;: Or, Ship ahoy & let 'er buck! ASIN B00086NDPK[4]
The book is a compilation of tall tales about a cowboy born in Wyoming to become a sailor, never an able-bodied one, but with many adventures, including the luring of whales with his music, capturing a mermaid, mutineering.[5]
  • "The Strange Adventure of the Cowboy-Sailor" in a 1948 collection New England bean-pot; American folk stories to read and to tell.[6] tells a story of Bowleg Bill meeting giant sea serpent and embark on a quest to find woman named Keziah.[7]
  • Harold W. Felton, Bowleg Bill, Seagoing Cowpuncher, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1957. From review: " The exuberant chronicle of the exploits of Bowleg Bill, an eight-foot cowboy who rides herd on tuna fish and she-whales and he-whales, makes the most of two professions given to tall tales -- whaling and bronco-busting. The mixture of the jargon of the range and the poop-deck add to the incongruity of this beef-and-blubber comedy."[8]
  • Wyatt Blassingame, Bowleg Bill, Seagoing Cowboy, Garrard Publishing Company; 1st ed., 1976, ISBN 0811640442

References
  1. "All of America's folk heroes, in one map", a 1946 map by cartoonist William Gropper, shown at Vox
  2. Marshall Fishwick, Popular Culture in a New Age, p.44
  3. Man rides two-ton tuna. herds other fish. New England: Botkin American 192-204. 1944. Dorson American Scholar 10: 390-91. 1941 (Bowleg Bill), as cited in: Ernest W. Baughman, Type and Motif-Index of the Folktales of England and North America
  4. Entry at WorldCat
  5. American Regional Folklore: A Sourcebook and Research Guide, p. 101
  6. New England bean-pot; American folk stories to read and to tell, WorldCat entry
  7. New England bean-pot: American folk stories to read and to tell at Google Books snippet view
  8. A review at Kirkus Reviews
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