Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton, the county-seat of Putnam
County, Georgia, and in his early days attended the Eatonton Academy,
where he received all the academic training he ever had. His vitally
helpful education was gained in the wider and deeper school of life,
and few have been graduated therefrom with greater honors.

At six years of age he had the good fortune to encounter "The Vicar of
Wakefield," than whom, it is safe to assert, no boy of such tender
years had ever a better and more inspiring friend. This beloved
clerical gentleman led young Joel into a charmed land of literature,
in which he dwelt all his life.

In the post-office at Eatonton was an old green sofa, very much the
worse for wear, which yet offered a comfortable lounging place for the
boy Joel, adapted to his kittenish taste for curling up in quiet
retreats. There he would spend hours in reading the newspapers that
came to the office. In one of them he found an announcement of a new
periodical to be published by Colonel Turner on his plantation nine
miles from Eatonton. In connection with this announcement was an
advertisement for an office boy. It occurred to the future "Uncle
Remus," then twelve years old, that this might open a way for him. He
wrote to Colonel Turner, and a few days later the Colonel drove up to
town to take the unknown boy to his plantation. So beside the editor
Joel Chandler Harris rode to the office of the _Countryman_ and to his
happy destiny. It has been said that but for the Turner plantation
there would have been no Uncle Remus, but what would have become of
the possibilities of that good old darky if the little Joel had not
enjoyed the acquaintance of a good-natured post-master who permitted
him to occupy the old green sofa and browse among the second-class
mail of the Eatonton community?