Eldred Kurtz Means

Means was born in Taylor County, Kentucky, the son of Virginia née Lively Means and George Hamilton Means. He married Ella Q. Crebbin in Monroe, Louisiana.[1][5]

Means was educated at Dodd’s University School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received a Doctor of Divinity, Centenary College of Louisiana.[5]

He had a far flung clerical career, involving more than a dozen posts:

• 1899 Ordained ministry Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
• 1899–1900, Pastor Ghent, Kentucky
• 1901, Erlanger
• 1902, Hodgenville
• 1903–1905, Louisiana Avenue Church, New Orleans
• 1905–1909, Baton Rouge
• 1909–1913, Minden
• 1913–1915, Shreveport
• 1915–1917, Arcadia
• 1917–1921, Monroe
• 1922–1925, Galloway Memorial Church, Jackson, Mississippi[6][7]
• 1925–1929, Court St. Church, Lynchburg, Virginia
• 1929–1933 Main Street Methodist Episcopal Church South, Danville, Virginia
• 1933–1937, Travis Street Church, Sherman, Texas
• 1937–1939, First Church, Helena, Arkansas
• 1939–1944, Central Methodist Church, Rogers, Arkansas[1][5]

He was a Democrat.[5]

Over more than a half century, he wrote scores of short stories for pulp fiction magazines. A fairly complete listing of his published stories appears in the following reference.[1] In 1924, Irvin S. Cobb, an American humorist, numbered Means’s “darky stories” among his favorites. In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he wrote: "[Means] is at home in Jackson, Miss. ... and pastor of Galloway Memorial Church M.E., South. ... He is a zealous clergyman, a gifted speaker, and a fluent writer, but being, as befits a clergyman, a truthful man also, Mr. Means would lay no claim to great personal beauty."[7]

Means defended his use of dialect, persons and places as being true-to-type with verisimilitude to a passing and important lifestyle and culture. He claimed a love for the people — the musicality and rhythm of their language, and professed a linguist's and an anthropologist's intent to preserve transitory culture and cultural artifacts — which were in imminent danger of extirpation, as the shadow of slavery waned in the distance.[1]

The publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons promoted him as part of its stable of authors highlighting white supremacy over other races.[2][8]

In 1918, an Ebony Film Corporation advertisement teased a coming film based on one of his Tickfall Tales titled Good Luck in Old Clothes.[9] The film was produced[10] and promoted as exemplifying "wholesome real droll Negro humor."[11]

In addition to his short stories, he had several books published.[12] Edward Winsor Kemble — well known for his racist (purportedly accurate and humorous) caricatures[13] — illustrated several of his books.[14][15][16] His books were reviewed in several newspapers.[1]

Reviews of his works at the time were mixed, with the New York Tribune giving a favorable report.[2] In contrast, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote: “There are, among the better writers of today, three who can write negro stories with humor and understanding, and E.K. Means is not one of them”.[17] Several of his books, having gone out of copyright, have been reproduced by various republishers.

Means touted 'lack of titles' on three of his books was not universally welcomed. A New York Times reviewer castigated the third in the series: "The crass lack of good taste, and worse than crass conceit shown by the title of this volume, are not-redeemed by any remarkable quality in its content."[18]

His story "At the End of the Rope" contains the earliest known usage of the saying: If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.[19][20][21]

He was one of the earliest recognized users of the word "doodlebug".[22]

• Means, Eldred Kurtz (November 17, 2011) [1918]. Negro Stories (Paperback). Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1-272-00944-1.
• Means, E.K.; Kemble, Edward Winsor, Illustrator. (1918) E. K. Means: Is This a Title? It Is Not. It Is the Name of a Writer of Negro Stories, Who Has Made Himself So Completely the Writer of Negro Stories That His Book Needs No Title New York, London: The Knickerbocker Press, G. P. Putnam's Sons[23][24][25]
• Means, E.K.; Kemble, Edward Winsor, Illustrator. (1919) More E. K. Means: Is This a Title? It Is Not. It Is the Name of a Writer of Negro Stories, Who Has Made Himself So Completely the Writer of Negro Stories That His Second Book Needs No Title New York, London: The Knickerbocker Press, G. P. Putnam's Sons[26]
• Means, E.K.; Kemble, Edward Winsor, Illustrator. (1920) Is This a Title? It Is Not. It Is the Name of a Writer of Negro Stories, Who Has Made Himself So Completely the Writer of Negro Stories That This Third Book, Like the First and Second, Needs No Title New York, London: The Knickerbocker Press, G. P. Putnam's Sons[27]
• Abdullah, Achmed; Brand, Max; Means, E.K.; Sheehan, Perley Poore (1920). The Ten Foot Chain: Can Love Survive the Shackles? — A Unique Symposium. New York: Reynolds Publishing Company.[28][29]
• “At the End of the Rope” by E. K. Means, Munsey's Magazine, New York (1927)
• Means, E.K. (1931). Black Fortune. New York: Brentano's.[30]
• Means, Eldred Kurtz (1957). Sunset Gun: The Public Addresses of Eldred K. Means. United States: Comet Press Books.[31]

• All-Negro Comics
• Cultural appropriation
• Helen Bannerman
• Tickfaw, Louisiana

• Jarrett, Gene Andrew (2013). Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature. United States: University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-8122-0235-9.

• "Eldred Kurtz Means - "Plumb Nauseated" Chapter 3 of The Ten Foot Chain or Can Love Survive the Shackles" (Audio). September 29, 2019 – via YouTube. at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Eldred Kurtz Means at IMDb.
• Means, E.K. at Project Gutenberg.