Edgar Tolson was born in 1904 in Wolfe County, Eastern Kentucky. He was born the fourth of eleven children of poor tenant farmers. When he was nine, Edgar carved a table; he went on to carve a whole set of dinnerware for his family. The region was known for its roughness, and Tolson told stories of gunfights in nearby Lee City. He had a religious upbringing and possibly because of this he was a notorious prankster. Perhaps the most adventurous event was when he rigged dynamite to the side of the church with a long fuse that he lit and ran into the church so he would be in there when it exploded.
He eventually married, had kids, and became a preacher, but his alcohol and womanizing got in the way and also got him imprisoned. After suffering a stroke in the 1950's he began wood carving full time.
Called the Kentucky Gothic, his art dominantly reflects temptation and the fall of man. He carved hundreds of representations of Adam and Eve in the garden in front of the Tree of Life and including a black snake. His sculptures are one of the most recognized if not the most recognized of Kentucky Folk Art.
"This was a preacher who had faced many demons, and exorcised them with a penknife and a piece of Kentucky poplar." -Paul D'Ambrosio (Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY)
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