Uncle Remus - His Songs and His Sayings - By Joel Chandler Harris - "You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far." ~ Uncle Remus Uncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African-American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881. A journalist in post-Reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia, Harris produced seven Uncle Remus books.