Eldred Kurtz Means Explained

Eldred Kurtz Means (March 11, 1878 – February 19, 1957) was an American Methodist Episcopal clergyman, famed public speaker, and author. A white man, he wrote fictional stories about African/African American characters who lived in an area of Louisiana which he named Tickfall. He described the characters in the most grotesque, comical and sensational terms. His magazine stories were compiled into books. He was a constant and prolific contributor to Frank A. Munsey's pulp magazines such as All-Story Weekly, Argosy and its predecessors. His use of black stereotypes, minstrel show motifs, Jim Crow characters, fantastical mimicry and impressionism of Negro dialect made him a popular author with a niche of white audiences;^[1] but the implicit racist message has not aged well.

Early life

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.

Ministry

Means received a Doctor of Divinity, Centenary College of Louisiana.^[2]

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^[3]
• 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^[2]

He was a Democrat.^[2]

Literary work

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. 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."^[4]

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.

The publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons promoted him as part of its stable of authors highlighting white supremacy over other races.^[5]

In 1918, an Ebony Film Corporation advertisement teased a coming film based on one of his Tickfall Tales titled Good Luck in Old Clothes.^[6] The film was produced^[7] and promoted as exemplifying "wholesome real droll Negro humor."^[8]

In addition to his short stories, he had several books published.^[9] Edward Winsor Kemble well known for his racist (purportedly accurate and humorous) caricatures^[10] illustrated several of his books.^{[11] [12] [13]} His books were reviewed in several newspapers.

Reception

Reviews of his works at the time were mixed, with the New York Tribune giving a favorable report.^[14] 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”.^[15] 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."^[16]

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.^{[17] [18] [19]}

He was one of the earliest recognized users of the word "doodlebug".^[20]

Works (in chronological order)

• Book: Negro Stories . Paperback . November 17, 2011 . Eldred Kurtz . Means . . 1918 . English . 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^{[21] [22] [23]}
• 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^[24]
• 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^[25]
• Book: The Ten Foot Chain: Can Love Survive the Shackles? A Unique Symposium. Achmed . Abdullah . Achmed Abdullah. Max . Brand . Max Brand. E.K. . Means . Perley Poore . Sheehan . New York . Perley Poore Sheehan. . 1920 . ^{[26] [27]}
• “At the End of the Rope” by E. K. Means, Munsey's Magazine, New York (1927)
• Book: Black Fortune . E.K. . Means . . New York . 1931. ^[28]
• Book: Sunset Gun: The Public Addresses of Eldred K. Means . Eldred Kurtz . Means . 1957 . United States . Comet Press Books. ^[29]

See also

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

References

Bibliography

• Book: The Ten Foot Chain: Can Love Survive the Shackles? A Unique Symposium. Achmed . Abdullah . Achmed Abdullah. Max . Brand . Max Brand. E.K. . Means . Perley Poore . Sheehan . New York . Perley Poore Sheehan. . 1920 .
• Book: Drew, Bernard A.. Black Stereotypes in Popular Series Fiction, 1851–1955: Jim Crow Era Authors and Their Characters. April 14, 2015 . 88–96 . McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. 978-0-7864-7410-3. While many of his black characters can read, their language – and it may have basis as dialect – keeps them apart from the whites.. Google Books.
• Book: Eldred Kurtz Means . 1920 . Marquis Who's Who. 11 . 1939 . John William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis.
• Web site: E.K. . Means . Edward Winsor, Illustrator . Kemble . Edward Winsor Kemble. Eldred Kurtz 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 . Docsbiz.
• Book: E.K. . Means . Edward Winsor, Illustrator . Kemble . Edward Winsor Kemble . 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 . . . 1918 . March 24, 2019. EBook .
• Book: E.K. . Means . Edward Winsor, Illustrator . Kemble . Edward Winsor Kemble . 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.
• Book: E.K. . Means . Edward Winsor, Illustrator . Kemble . Edward Winsor Kemble . 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 . . ebook. Project Gutenberg.
• Book: Negro Stories . Paperback . November 17, 2011 . Eldred Kurtz . Means . . 1918 . English . 978-1-272-00944-1 .
• Book: Sunset Gun: The Public Addresses of Eldred K. Means . Eldred Kurtz . Means . 1957 . United States . Comet Press Books.
• Book: Black Fortune . E.K. . Means . . New York . 1930.
• Book: North . Michael . 1998 . The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language and Twentieth-Century Literature . New York . . 22, 204, 239, 244 . 978-0-19-512291-6 .

Further reading

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

External links

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

Notes and References

1. News: . February 20, 1921 . VII . 9 . New York 1920, 100 Years Ago Today. Chronicling America . Further; E.K. Means "Negro Tales: Racy Humor in New Stories by E.K. Means" . E.K. Means has won a distinctive if small niche in our national literature. No one has so skillfully exploited ....
2. Book: Eldred Kurtz Means . 1920 . Marquis Who's Who. 11 . 1939 . John William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis.
3. Souvenir: One Hundred Years of Methodism in Jackson, Mississippi, 1836–1936. (1936). United States: (n.p.).
4. News: Irwin S. . Cobb . Irvin S. Cobb . My Favorite Stories . . October 24, 1924.
5. New York Times Book Review and Magazine, February 6, 1921, p. 25. Chronicling America; New York Tribune, February 5, 1921, p. 9. Chronicling America. See Book: The Ten Foot Chain: Can Love Survive the Shackles? A Unique Symposium. Achmed . Abdullah . Achmed Abdullah. Max . Brand . Max Brand. E.K. . Means . Perley Poore . Sheehan . New York . Perley Poore Sheehan. . 1920 .
6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454101/mediaviewer/rm79025921/ Film Card, Ebony Film Corporation
7. Good Luck in Old Clothes at IMDb.
8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454101/mediaviewer/rm2726156033/ Placard, "An Ebony Comedy Hit: Good Luck in Old Clothes
9. Web site: E. K. Means (Means, E. K. (Eldred Kurtz), 1878–1957) | The Online Books Page. onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu.
10. Martin . Francis Jr.. July 21, 2007. To Ignore Is to Deny: E. W. Kemble's Racial Caricature as Popular Art. The Journal of Popular Culture. 40. 4. 655–682. 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00429.x.
11. Web site: E.K. Means .... Eldred Kurtz. Means. May 5, 1918. G.P. Putnam's Sons. Google Books.
12. Book: More E.K. Means .... May 5, 1919. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 8693867. Open WorldCat.
13. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37155 Works by E.W. Kemble
14. News: Further E.K. Means: Minstrelsy in Fiction . 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”.. Jonathan . Goldman . Gene Andrew . Jarrett. February 20, 2021 . New York Tribune February 20, 1921 . VII . 9 . Chronicling America.
15. “The ‘Unhumorous’ Negro,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 12, 1921, p. 11.
16. Review: Further 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 Like the First or Second Book. this Third Book Needs No Title (February 8, 1921) New York Times quoted in Drew (2015) page 93.
17. Web site: E. K. Means – Quote Investigator . September 2, 2020 . 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.”.
18. See 1927 January, Munsey’s Magazine, Volume 89, Number 4, At the End of the Rope by E. K. Means, Short Story Series: Tickfall, Start Page 645, Quote Page 649, New York: The Frank A. Munsey Company.
19. See 1928 December, Munsey’s Magazine, Volume 95, Number 3, One Kind Deed by E. K. Means, Short Story Series: Tickfall, Start Page 382, Quote Page 384, Column 1, New York: The Frank A. Munsey Company.
20. Web site: Definition of Doodlebug . "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) . July 24, 2021.
21. Web site: Eldred Kurtz 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 . Docsbiz.
22. Book: E.K. . Means . Edward Winsor, Illustrator . Kemble . Edward Winsor Kemble . 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. . 1918 . March 24, 2019. EBook .
23. Web site: 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. . E.K. Means . Forgotten Books.
24. 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 ebook via Project Gutenberg
25. Means, E.K.; Kemble, Edward Winsor, Illustrator. (1920) Further 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 Like the First or Second Book. this Third Book Needs No Title New York, London: The Knickerbocker Press, G. P. Putnam's Sons ebook via Project Gutenberg
26. Book: The Ten Foot Chain: Can Love Survive the Shackles? A Unique Symposium. Achmed . Abdullah . Achmed Abdullah. Max . Brand . Max Brand. E.K. . Means . Perley Poore . Sheehan . New York . Perley Poore Sheehan. . archive.org . PDF . 1920 .
27. Kurtz's Chapter 3 read in audio.Web site: Eldred Kurtz Means – "Plumb Nauseated" Chapter 3 of The Ten Foot Chain or Can Love Survive the Shackles . Audio . September 29, 2019 . YouTube. at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks
28. Book: Black Fortune . E.K. . Means . . PDF. New York . 1931 . Hathi Trust.
29. Published in the year of his death. Writings on American History. United States: KTO Press, 1957.