Editing Robert Johnson (section)

===Various accounts===
This legend was developed over time and has been chronicled by [[Gayle Dean Wardlow]],{{sfn|Wardlow|Komara|1998|pp=196–201}} Edward Komara{{sfn|Wardlow|Komara|1998|pp=203–204}} and Elijah Wald, who sees the legend as largely dating from Johnson's rediscovery by white fans more than two decades after his death.{{sfn|Wald|2004|pp=265–276}} [[Son House]] once told the story to [[Pete Welding]] as an explanation of Johnson's astonishingly rapid mastery of the guitar. Other interviewers failed to elicit any confirmation from House and there were two full years between House's observation of Johnson as first a novice and then a master.

Further details were absorbed from the imaginative retellings by [[Greil Marcus]]{{sfn|Marcus|2015|p=}} and [[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]].{{sfn|Palmer|1981|p=}} Most significantly, the detail was added that Johnson received his gift from a large black man at a crossroads. There is dispute as to how and when the crossroads detail was attached to the Robert Johnson story. All the published evidence, including a full chapter on the subject in the biography ''Crossroads'', by Tom Graves, suggests an origin in the story of the blues musician [[Tommy Johnson (guitarist)|Tommy Johnson]].{{sfn|Graves|2008|p=}} This story was collected from his musical associate [[Ishman Bracey]] and his elder brother Ledell in the 1960s.{{sfn|Wardlow|Komara|1998|p=}} One version of Ledell Johnson's account was published in [[David Evans (musicologist)|David Evans]]'s 1971 biography of Tommy Johnson,<ref>{{cite book |last=Evans |first=David |title=Tommy Johnson |location=London |publisher=Studio Vista |date=1971 |page= }}</ref> and was repeated in print in 1982 alongside House's story in the widely read ''Searching for Robert Johnson'', by Peter Guralnick.{{sfn|Guralnick|1998|p=}}

In another version, Ledell placed the meeting not at a crossroads but in a graveyard. This resembles the story told to Steve LaVere that Ike Zimmerman of [[Hazlehurst, Mississippi]], learned to play the guitar at midnight while sitting on tombstones. Zimmerman is believed to have influenced the playing of the young Johnson.{{sfn|Wardlow|Komara|1998|p=197}} [[File:ClarksdaleMS Crossroads.jpg|right|thumb|The crossroads at Clarksdale, Mississippi]] Recent research by the blues scholar [[Bruce Conforth]], in ''[[Living Blues]]'' magazine, makes the story clearer. Johnson and Ike Zimmerman did practice in a graveyard at night, because it was quiet and no one would disturb them, but it was not the Hazlehurst cemetery as had been believed: Zimmerman was not from Hazlehurst but nearby [[Beauregard, Mississippi|Beauregard]], and he did not practice in one graveyard, but in several in the area.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=|first=|date=January–February 2008|title=Discovering Robert Johnson's Guitar Teacher, Ike Zimmerman|magazine=[[Living Blues]]|volume=|issue=194|issn=0024-5232|pages=68–73}}</ref> Johnson spent about a year living with and learning from Zimmerman, who ultimately accompanied Johnson back to the Delta to look after him.

While Dockery, Hazlehurst and Beauregard have each been claimed as the locations of the mythical crossroads, there are also tourist attractions claiming to be "The Crossroads" in both Clarksdale and Memphis.{{sfn|Wardlow |Komara|1998|p=200}} Residents of [[Rosedale, Mississippi]], claim Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of Highways 1 and 8 in their town, while the 1986 movie ''[[Crossroads (1986 film)|Crossroads]]'' was filmed in [[Beulah, Mississippi]]. The blues historian Steve Cheseborough wrote that it may be impossible to discover the exact location of the mythical crossroads, because "Robert Johnson was a rambling guy".{{sfn|Cheseborough|2009|p=83}}