Archer Taylor (August 1, 1890September 30, 1973) was one of America's "foremost specialists in American and European folklore",
["Archer Taylor, UC professor", '']The San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
'', 2 October 1973, p. 49. with a special interest in cultural history, literature,
proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
s,
riddle
A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requir ...
s and bibliography.
Early life and education
Taylor was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, Pennsylvania, on August 1, 1890.
He enrolled at
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...
in Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.A. and M.A. in German.
He then taught German at Pennsylvania State College. He went on to Harvard University, receiving his Ph.D. degree in German in 1915 with a dissertation on the fairy tale motifs in the
Wolfdietrich
Wolfdietrich is the eponymous protagonist of the Middle High German heroic epic ''Wolfdietrich''. First written down in strophic form in around 1230 by an anonymous author, it survives in four main versions, widely differing in scope and content ...
epics. At Harvard, he studied under such famous scholars as
Kuno Francke
Kuno Francke (27 September 1855 – 1930), was a U.S. (German-born) educator and historian. Most of his career was spent at Harvard University where he eventually became a professor of history and German culture and curator of the Germanic ...
,
George Lyman Kittredge
George Lyman Kittredge (February 28, 1860 – July 23, 1941) was a professor of English literature at Harvard University. His scholarly edition of the works of William Shakespeare was influential in the early 20th century. He was also involved i ...
, John Albrecht Walz, Hans Carl Gunther von Jagemann, William Henry Schofield,
Charles Hall Grandgent, and F.N. Robinson. From them he developed interest in such fields as German literature, Germanic philology, Scandinavian studies, Romance languages, Celtic and, folklore in general.
Taylor also spent two summers studying abroad: at the University of Freiburg (Breisgau) in 1913 and at the University of Helsingfors (under
Kaarle Krohn
Kaarle Krohn (10 May 1863 – 19 July 1933) was a Finnish folklorist, professor and developer of the geographic-historic method of folklore research. He was born into the influential Krohn family of Helsinki. Krohn is best known outside of Finlan ...
) in 1925.
[John Simon Guggenheim Foundation: Archer Taylor](_blank)
gf.org. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
St. Louis, Chicago
In 1915 Taylor began teaching German at Washington University in St. Louis, eventually being promoted to professor.
He moved to the University of Chicago in 1925. By 1927 Taylor had become the Chairman of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures.
He married his childhood sweetheart Alice Jones on September 9, 1915, and they had three children. He lost her June 16, 1930, while they lived in Chicago. He later married Dr. Hasseltine Byrd, who became his second wife on June 17, 1932. They had two children. Like her husband, Dr. Hasseltine Byrd Taylor also taught for many years at the University of California Berkeley.
Berkeley, California
In 1939, they moved to California, where he served as Professor of German Literature and Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley, as Chairman of the Department from 1940 to 1945. While in California, they built a home in the
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...
, where they hosted many folklorists. While in California, he worked as a journal editor, for ''California Folklore Quarterly'' (which he helped found) (now ''
Western Folklore
''Western Folklore'' is a quarterly academic journal for the study of folklore published by the Western States Folklore Society (formerly the California Folklore Society). It was established in 1942 as the ''California Folklore Quarterly'' and obt ...
'') and the ''
Journal of American Folklore
The ''Journal of American Folklore'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. Since 2003, this has been done on its behalf by the University of Illinois Press. The journal has been published since the society' ...
''. In 1965, Archer worked with his Finnish friend
Matti Kuusi
Matti Akseli Kuusi (25 March 1914 in Helsinki – 16 January 1998 in Helsinki) was a Finnish folklorist, paremiographer and paremiologist. He wrote several books and a number of articles on Finnish folklore. He was the first to have introduced ...
to establish the journal ''
Proverbium
''Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'' is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent prove ...
''.
Retirement
Taylor retired in 1958 but continued to be intellectually active and productive, spending periods as visiting professor at the "University of Texas (1959), Indiana University (1958 and 1962) and Ohio State University (1963)" and continuing to publish books.
He died on September 30, 1973, in
Vallejo, California
Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to the ...
.
Legacy
His publications were numerous, included work in medieval literature, philology, folklore, bibliography, etc., eventually totalling over four hundred books, monographs, articles and notes in America and Europe. His most famous work was ''The Proverb'' (1931), which contains his most famous quote, "the definition of a proverb is too difficult to repay the undertaking... An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that is not".
Though Taylor's contribution to the studies of proverbs is better known, his contribution to the studies of riddles is also significant. "Archer Taylor ... among modern folklorists has contributed most to riddle scholarship."
Honors
Taylor received honorary doctorate of law degree from the University of California and was appointed a senator of the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1927 and again in 1960,
was elected president of the
Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
in 1951, and was president of the
American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...
1936–38.
In 1960 Taylor was honored by a
Festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
, ''Humaniora: Essays in Literature, Folklore, Bibliography: Honoring Archer Taylor on His Seventieth Birthday'', edited by his friends
Wayland D. Hand
Wayland Debs Hand (March 19, 1907, Auckland, New Zealand – October 22, 1986, Moon Township, Pennsylvania, United States) was an American folklorist.
Biography
Hand was born in New Zealand, where his parents had emigrated. A few years after hi ...
and Gustave O. Arlt. At the annual meetings of the Western States Folklore Society, which he helped found, there is an invited lecture in the Archer Taylor Lecture Series.
Archer Taylor Lectures
archertaylor.com. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
Bibliography
Folklore, proverbs and riddles
*''The Black Ox: A Study in the History of a Folk-Tale'', Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1927.
*''"Edward" and "Sven i Rosengard": A Study in The Dissemination of a Ballad'', University of Chicago Press, 1931.
*''The Proverb'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1931.
*''An Index to "The Proverb"'', Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedakatemia, Academia scientiarum fennica, 1934.
*''A Bibliography of Meistergesang'', Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1936. Joint author: Frances H. Ellis.
*''The Literary History of Meistergesang'', New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1937.
*''A Bibliography of Riddles'', Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia - Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1939.
*''Problems in German Literary History of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries'', New York, Modern Language Association of America, 1939.
*''The Literary Riddle before 1600'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1948.
*''English Riddles from Oral Tradition'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1951.
*''Proverbial Comparisons and Similes from California'', Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1954.
*''A Collection of Irish Riddles, ''Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955. Joint editor: Vernam Hull.
*''The Shanghai Gesture'', Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia - Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1956.
*''Selected Writings on Proverbs'', Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia - Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1975.
Bibliography and book history
*''Renaissance Reference Books: A Checklist of Some Bibliographies Published before 1700'', Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1941.
*''Printing and Progress: Two Lectures'', Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1941. Joint author: Gustave O. Arlt.
*''Renaissance Guides to Books: An Inventory and Some Conclusions'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1945.
*''The Bibliographical History of Anonyma and Pseudonyma'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press (for the Newberry Library), 1951. Joint author: F. J. Mosher.
*
', New Brunswick, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1955.
*''Book Catalogues: Their Varieties and Uses'', Chicago: Newberry Library, 1957. Rev. ed., New York: Frederic C. Beil, 1987; St Paul's Bibliographies, 1987.
*''Catalogues of Rare Books: A Chapter in Bibliographical History'', Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Libraries, 1958.
References
Further reading
*Wayland D. Hand and Gustave O. Arlt, eds., ''Humaniora: essays in literature, folklore, bibliography: honoring Archer Taylor on his seventieth birthday'', Locust Valley, New York: Augustin, 1960.
*Wolfgang Mieder
Wolfgang Mieder (born 17 February 1944) is a retired professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, USA, where he had taught for 50 years. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University of Michigan ...
, "Seven overlooked paremiological publications by Archer Taylor". ''Proverbium'' 6 (1987): 187–190.
External links
Archer Taylor, Paremiologist
- detailed biography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Archer
1890 births
1973 deaths
American folklorists
American bibliographers
Harvard University alumni
University of California, Berkeley faculty
People from Napa County, California
Educators from Philadelphia
Swarthmore College alumni
Pennsylvania State University faculty
Proverb scholars
Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
Germanists
Presidents of the American Folklore Society
Presidents of the Modern Language Association