Thomas E. Barden, a native Virginian, is Professor of English at Toledo University. He is the author of The Travels of Peter Woodhouse: Memoir of an American Pioneer and was joint editor with Charles L. Perdue, Jr., and Robert K. Phillips of An Annotated Lsiting of Folklore Collected by the Virginia Writers Project and Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves (Virginia).