Leonidas Warren Payne Jr. (July 12, 1873 – June 16, 1945) was an American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and professor of English at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. He was a co-founder of the

Texas Folklore Society The Texas Folklore Society is a non-profit organization formed on December 29, 1909, in Dallas, Texas. According to John Avery Lomax, the first print collection included "public songs and ballads; superstitions, signs and omens, cures and peculiar ...

along with

John Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lo ...

, edited the first anthology of Texas literature, and was one of the first to recognize the talent of

e.e. cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

. Payne was born in

Auburn, Alabama Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama, with a 2020 population of 76,143. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population o ...

. He was the eldest son of Leonidas Warren Payne Sr., who was sometimes called Lonnie Payne, and attended the Auburn High School. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the

Alabama Polytechnic Institute Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

in Auburn in 1892 and 1893, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1904. While at Auburn Polytechnic Institute, Loenidas was the first initiate into the newly formed Upsilon Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha. He taught English at the Southwest Alabama Agricultural School, the State Normal School of Alabama, and the University of Pennsylvania prior to being awarded his Ph.D. From 1904 to 1906, he was the associate editor of Worcester's ''Dictionary'', and in 1906 was appointed an assistant professor at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. After a few months at Louisiana State, Payne was offered and accepted a position on the faculty at the

. In 1909, he and John Lomax founded the Texas Folklore Society, of which Payne was the first president. In 1919, he was elected full professor at Texas. In 1928, he published the first anthology of Texas literature, ''A Survey of Texas Literature''. Payne, at Texas, was one of the first teachers of

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

. He maintained friendships with

Edward Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robins ...

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

, and

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

. He mentored

Stark Young Stark Young (October 11, 1881 – January 6, 1963) was an American teacher, playwright, novelist, painter, literary critic, translator, and essayist. Early life Stark Young was born on October 11, 1881 in Como, Mississippi. His father, Alfre ...

and

J. Frank Dobie James Frank Dobie (September 26, 1888 – September 18, 1964) was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for his many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open rang ...

, and was one of the first to champion

. Payne published two major works in addition his anthology: ''History of American Literature'' (1919) and ''Texas Poems'' (1936). Payne retired from the University of Texas in 1943, and died in 1945.

References

*Abernathy, Frances Edward (1982). ''T for Texas: A State Full of Folklore''. Dallas, E-Hart Press. *Durbin, John R. (1945).
In Memoriam: Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr.
'. Retrieved April 7, 2007. *Foxworth, Sarah Payne.
Payne, Leonidas Warren, Jr.
, ''The Handbook of Texas Online''. Retrieved April 7, 2007. *The University of Texas (1906). ''The University of Texas Record, Volume VII'', Austin, Texas, University. pp 201–202. American folklorists Auburn High School (Alabama) alumni Auburn University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Louisiana State University faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty 1873 births 1945 deaths {{Texas-bio-stub