When I was a boy, I thought my grandfather was a witch. I still think my grandfather was a witch. My grandfather was a witch, I know he was. Now Cherokees are different from white people. We have good witches and we have bad witches. My grandfather was a good witch, you would call him.

GRANDFATHER WAS A GOOD WITCH is the eighth collaboration of Indian writers and educators Rennard Strickland (Osage/Cherokee) and Jack Gregory (Cherokee). In a brief preface, the authors describe the origin of this book. They regard Grandfather as a human testament against many of the Native American stereotypes.

These stories grow from what may be our greatest literary failure. Forty years ago, we received a phone call from an editor at Random House asking if we would write a “children's book on what it is like to be an Indian.”

We agreed that we would undertake the task. We purchased a tape recorder and went out in the field to gather impressions and experiences. We interviewed more than two dozen Cherokee men who had come of age during the great depression. Reels and reels of tape later, the New York editor decided our Indians didn't meet her stereotype of what it was like to be an Indian. Apparently Indians seen from the top floor of a Manhattan office building are different from our fellow Cherokees in Eastern Oklahoma. And so, by mutual agreement, we called off the project.

These remembrances are drawn from the stories of Cherokee boys in the Indian Country of Northeastern Oklahoma. The authors gathered these stories into one narrative to create this composite portrait. The book is, in a very real sense, the boys' collective lives. Strickland and Gregory describe what it was like to be a Cherokee boy growing up in depression-era Indian country. It was a time when the poverty of the economy was, in many ways, offset by the richness of spirit and tradition.

GRANDFATHER WAS A GOOD WITCH is published by lone goose press in a limited edition of 101 numbered copies and 10 lettered copies for the participants. Illustrations were created by Margot Voorhies Thompson and the book was designed, printed and bound by Sandy Tilcock, lone goose proprietor.

Signed by both the authors and artist, GRANDFATHER WAS A GOOD WITCH is set in Gill Sans, monotype cast by Michael Bixler, then passed through the stick for justification. Display type in Neuland. Text paper is Nideggen, and cover paper is Walnut Red, a handmade pigmented and dyed flax paper from by Cave Papers. The artist cut the images in Rubylith film, from which polymer plates were made. Both the type and plates were printed on a Vandercook 219 proofing press.