[Ads-l] Antedating of "Fakelore"

[Peter Reitan]

Not exactly the same thing, but similar:

"Fake Nature-lore"
"As long as beaverts are a novelty in any district, sentimental interest in them is strong.  Pilgrimages are undertaken to see their dams, and much fake nature-lore is unearthed to prove their reputed wisdom."
Detroit Free Press, November 29, 1931, page 18.

"Fake Fistic-lore"
"The fight game is old Army stuff I like it!  A glutton for fake fistic lore, You never find me getting sore, But always coming back for more; I LOVE IT!"
The Standard Union (Brooklyn), June 25, 1930, page 8.

Coincidentally, I did a piece on my blog recently that included some "fakelore," if not by that name.  I wrote about the history of the Jackalope and a similar fake, the "Polar Trout" (or "fur-bearing trout").

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2019/09/civic-pride-through-taxidermy-many.html

In doing that research I ran across other examples, and a minor controversy that arose when Theodore Roosevelt was President, when he railed against the so-called "nature fakers" (sometimes, "nature fakirs").  The "nature fakers" were of two kinds, people who wrote naturalistic fiction, like Jack London, while giving false impression of the nature or habits of wildlife, and newspaper writers who regularly wrote outlandish copy for mass distribution about some impossible animal or event, which were sometimes taken seriously by readers in far-away places.

There were even writers who specialized in creating such items for newspapers.  A man named L. T. Stone is believed to be responsible for a long list of stories mostly taking place in a place called Winsted, Connecticut over several decades, and a "Colonel Condon" (a "Con" artist) was responsible for a number of "nature fakes" in New Hampshire.

The "polar trout" from Greenland was originated by a man named "Bunker" (a signal that the story was "bunk"), and the fur-bearing polar trout from Montana was the work of a man named "Hoke" Smith - a man who wrote hoaxes, "hoax-smith".  There appears to have actually been such a man, named Robert Smith, whose nickname in journalism circles was "Hoke" (coincidentally, "Hoke" Smith was also the name of a Senator and former Secretary of the Interior, whose name was frequently used in a pun on "hoaxsmith" when he was caught prevaricating on something).

The "snipe," as in "snipe hunt" and a lumberjack legend of the "hodag" are examples of fakelore.  Both were originally used as jokes or initiation rites to abuse or scare newcomers, or snooty Easterners who deserved their comeuppance.  A newspaper in Wisconsin later invented an elaborate fakelore surrounding the "hodag," which over time became accepted as the kind of folklore Dorson later characterized as "fakelore."




------ Original Message ------
From: "Bill Mullins" <amcombill at hotmail.com>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 10/14/2019 7:01:36 PM
Subject: Antedating of "Fakelore"

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster: Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Antedating of "Fakelore"
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1944 _Charlotte [NC] Observer_ 3 Sep sec 2 p 12 col 7 (Genealogybank.com)
"The only possible way to resolve these bits of apparent wildlife FAKELORE =
into acceptable FACTLORE is to break down the introduced evidence into it c=
omponent allegations and scrutinize each by itself."

1944 _Charlotte [NC] Observer_ 24 Sep sec 4 p 4 col 6 (Genealogybank.com)
"To other readers of this page who may be interested in arriving at their o=
wn explanation of the incident referred to in Outdoorsman Felley's letter t=
o Mr. Keziah and who wish to keep the records of our wildlife clear of conf=
usion and free of fakelore, we respectfully call attention to the lines and=
pages hereinbefore mentioned of the 'Poisonous Snakes of the Eastern Unite=
d States.'"


fakelore (OED 1949)

1948 _Times Herald_ (Port Huron, Mich.) 26 Sept. 2/8 (Newspapers.com) Dr=
.
Richard M. Dorson ... illustrated his point by relating legends of the
lumberjacks. ... the real legends are quite different from "fakelore," Dr=
.
Dorson said.

Fred Shapiro



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