Songquest: The Journals of Great Lakes Folklorist Ivan H. Walton
Ivan H. Walton with Joe Grimm
Great Lakes Books Series
Price: $27.95
Order Book
“Ivan Walton was a pioneer collector whose collection of Great Lakes sailors’ traditions is a valuable treasure and enduring legacy of maritime culture. The Ivan Walton Collection, which consists of much more than songs and ledgers, is vast and seemingly overwhelmed Walton, who could not organize and publish the book he so much wanted to write. . . . Joe Grimm’s edited works of Walton’s data are an important resource. Songquest provides essential contextual information about the songs and singers in Windjammers while the songs in Windjammers illustrate Walton’s discourse in Songquest. Together the two are invaluable.”
—Yvonne Lockwood, curator of folklife, Michigan State University Museum
“Guided by the thoughts and journals of Ivan Walton, Joe Grimm’s interpretation gives insight into what drove a man to discover and cherish a selection of ‘sailor songs’ that were carried in the throats of a dying generation of Great Lakes sailors.”
—John Polacsek, curator of marine history, Dossin Great Lakes Museum
“Edited by Joe Grimm, Songquest is a fascinating selection from the daily journals Walton wrote during his travels. His writings provide a clear picture of the colorful individuals he met and interviewed. For anyone interested in the lore of the Great Lakes, these journal entries bring to life an era on the Great Lakes long gone into the history books.”
—Great Lakes Seaway Review