Historic Bibliographies and Reference Aids

Folklore and the W.P.A.: A Preliminary Bibliography

Compiled by Joseph C. Hickerson with thanks to Herbert Halpert
Publication Date: May 4, 1979

Alho, Olli.
The Religion of the Slaves: A Study of the Religious Tradition and Behaviour of Plantation Slaves in the United States 1830-1865. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatema, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1976. (FF Communications, vol. 92 [1], no. 217.)

[author not identified]
"Americans All" Folk Festival. Harrisburg: Works Progress Administration for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1939.

Asmell, James R., et al, of the Tennessee Writers' Project.
God Bless the Devil: Liars' Bench Tales. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

Baker, James C.
"Oregon Gold Mining Folklore: Federal Writers' Project and Today." Keystone Folklore Quarterly, volume 16, number 2, Summer 1971, pp. 71-79.

Barry, Phillips.
Folk Music in America. New York: WPA Federal Theatre Project, National Service Bureau (Publication no. 80-S), 1939.

Betts, Leonidas and Richard Walser.
"North Carolina Folk Tales from the W.P.A. Writers' Program." North Carolina Folklore, volume 19, number 1, January 1971, pp. 1-32.

Birdsall, Esther K.
"Folklore Problems and Folklore Samplings of the American Guide Series." Journal of the Ohio Folklore Society, volume 3, number 3, Fall 1968, pp. 169-185.

"Maryland Folklore Recorded in Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State." Newsletter of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, volume 5, number 2, October 1968, supplement, pp. 1-5.

Boswell, George W.
"Riddles in the WPA-Collected Folklore Archives." Mississippi Folklore Register, volume 3, number 2, Summer 1969, pp. 33-52.

"The Several Folklore Archives at Oxford." Mississippi Folklore Register, volume 6, number 1, Spring 1972, pp. 9-17.

"The WPA-Collected Folklore Archives in Jackson." Mississippi Folklore Register, volume 2, number 4, Winter 1968, pp. 109-112.

Botkin, Benjamin A.
Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1945.

"The Slave As His Own Interpreter." Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, volume 2, number 1, November 1944, pp. 37-63.

Supplementary Instructions to the American Guide Manual for Folklore Studies. Washington, DC: WPA, Federal Writers' Project, 1938.

"WPA and Folklore Research: 'Bread and Song'." Southern Folklore Quarterly, volume 3, number 1, March 1939, pp. 7-14.

"We Called it 'Living Lore'." New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 14, number 3, Fall 1958, pp. 189-201. Reprinted in Whatever Makes Papa Laugh: A Folklore Sheaf Honoring Harold W. Thompson, edited by Warren S. Walker, Cooperstown: New York Folklore Society, 1958, pp. 29-41.

Brown, Lorin W. with Charles L. Briggs and Marta Weigle.
Hispano Folklife of New Mexico: The Lorin W. Brown Federal Writers' Project Manuscripts. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1978.

Carlsen, Robert E.
Nebraska Folklore (Book Two). Lincoln: Woodruff Printing Co., 1940.

[author not identified]
Check List of California Songs. Conducted under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration. Berkley: University of California, Department of Music, Archive of California Folk Music, 1940.

[author not identified]
Check-List of Recorded Songs in the English Language in the Archive of American Folk Song to July, 1940. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Music Division, 1942. 3 volumes. Reprint edition, New York: Arno Press, 1971.

Couch, W. T. et al.
These Are Our Lives: As Told by the People and Written by Members of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939. Reprint editions, New York: Arno Press, 1969; St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, 1972; New York: Norton, 1975.

Cox, John Harrington.
Folk-Songs Mainly from West Virginia. New York: WPA Federal Theatre Project, National Service Bureau (Publication no. 81-S), 1939. Reprint edition, New York: Da Capo Press, 1977.

Traditional Ballads and Folk Songs Mainly from West Virginia. Edited by George W. Boswell. Philadelphia: Publications of the American Folklore Society (Bibliographical and Special Series, volume 15), 1964. Amended reprints of two collections published by the WPA Federal Theatre Project, 1939.

Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virginia. New York: WPA Federal Theatre Project, National Service Bureau (Publication no. 75-S), 1939.

Davis, Hubert J.
Christmas in the Mountains: Southwest Virginia Christmas Customs and Their Origins. Murfreesboro, NC: Johnson Publishing Co., 1972.

Dwyer-Shick, Susan.
"The Development of Folklore and Folklife Research in the Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943." Keystone Folklore, volume 20, number 4, Fall 1976, pp. 5-31.

"Review Essay: Folklore and Government Support." Journal of American Folklore, volume 89, number 354, October-December 1976, pp. 476-486.

Eddy, Mary O.
Ballads and Songs from Ohio. Cleveland: Work Projects Administration, 1939.

Federal Music Project, Kentucky.
Folk Songs from East Kentucky. N.p.: Works Progress Administration, [1939?]. 2 volumes.

Federal Writers' Project, Idaho.
Idaho Lore. Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1939. Reprint edition, New York: AMS Press, 1975.

Federal Writers' Project, Indiana.
Hoosier Tall Stories. 2nd printing, n.p.: 1939.

Fox, Daniel.
"Achievement of the Federal Writers' Project," American Quarterly, volume 13, number 1, Spring 1961, pp. 3-19.

Fry, Gladys-Marie.
Night Riders in Black Folk History. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975.

Glass, Paul.
20 American and Irish Fiddle Tunes: Practical Studies for Violin Class. New York: New York City WPA Music Project, 1940.

Goines, Leonard.
"'Walk Over!': Music in the Slave Sarratives." Sing out!, volume 26, number 6, January-February 1976, pp. 6-11.

Gordon, Robert Winslow.
Folk-Songs of America. Washington, DC: WPA Federal Theatre Project, National Service Bureau (Publication no. 73-S), 1938.

Halpert, Herbert.
"Federal Theatre and Folksong." Southern Folklore Quarterly, volume 2, number2, June 1938, pp. 81-81.

Hand, Wayland D.
"Oregon Work Projects Administration Folklore Files." California Folklore Quarterly, volume 4, number 4, October 1945, pp. 424-432.

"W.P.A. Folklore Collection." California Folklore Quarterly, volume 2, number 3, July 1944, pp. 240-44. Beginning of series.

Harevan, Tamara K.
"The Search for Generational Memory: Tribal Rites in Industrial Society." Daedalus, volume 107, number 4, Fall 1978, pp. 137-150.

Hendricks, W. C., ed.
Bundle of Troubles, and other Tarheel Tales. By Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of North Carolina. Durham: Duke University Press, 1943.

Hickerson, Joseph C.
"Folklore and Related WPA Activities in the Archive of Folk Song." LCPA Newsletter (Library of Congress Professional Association), volume 3, number 6, June 1972, p. 16.

Hudson, Arthur Palmer and George Herzog.
Folk Tunes from Mississippi. New York: WPA Federal Theatre Project, National Service Bureau (Publication no. 25), 1937. Reprint edition, New York: Da Capo Press, 1977.

Johnson, Gerri.
"Maryland Roots: An Examination of the Free State's WPA Ex-Slave Narratives." Free State Folklore, volume 4, number 1, Winter 1977, pp. 18-34.

Killion, Ronald G. and Charles T. Waller.
Slavery Time: When I was Chillun Down on Marster's Plantation. Savannah, GA: Beehive Press, 1973.

A Treasury of Georgia Folklore. Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Co., 1972.

Lengyel, Cornel.
A San Francisco Songster. San Francisco: WPA Northern California, History of Music Project (History of Music in San Francisco Series, volume 2), 1939. Reprint edition, New York: AMS Press, 1972.

Lester, Julius.
To Be a Slave. New York: Dial Press, 1968.

Levine, Lawrence W.
Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

McDonald, William F.
Federal Relief Administration and the Arts. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1969.

Mangione, Jerre.
The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972.

Mathews, Jane DeHart.
The Federal Theatre, 1935-1939: Plays, Relief, and Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Naning, Zerne P. and Robert E. Carlsen.
Nebraska Folklore (Book Three). Lincoln: Woodruff Printing Co., 1941.

[no author identified]
Nebraska Folklore. Lincoln: Woodruff Printing co., 1939.

[no author identified]
Nebraska Folklore Pamphlets, numbers 1-30. Lincoln: Federal Writers' Project, May 1937-December 1940.

Penkower, Monty Noam.
The Federal Writers' Project: A Study in Government Patronage of the Arts. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.

Perdue, Charles L., Jr., Thomas E. Barden and Robert K. Phillips, eds.
Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976.

Rawick, George, ed.
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Co., 1972. (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, no. 11.) 19 volumes. Volumes 2-17 constitute the WPA FWP edited ex-slave narratives. Supplements begin appearing in 1978.

Richmond, W. Edson, and Elva Van Winkle.
"Is There a Doctor in the House?" Indiana History Bulletin, volume 35, number 9, September 1958, pp. 115-135.

Rosenberg, Bruce A.
The Folksongs of Virginia: A Checklist of the WPA Holdings, Alderman Library, University of Virginia. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969.

Saxon, Lyle, Edward Dreyer, and Robert Tallant.
Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folktales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1945. Reprint edition, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970.

[no author identified]
Spanish-American Singing Games of New Mexico. Compiled by Workers of the Work Projects Administration of New Mexico. N.p.: WPA Music Project, Unit No. 3, 1940.

[no author identified]
The Spanish American Song and Game Book. Compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program, Music Program, and Art Program of the Work Projects Administration in the state of New Mexico. New York: A. S. Barnes and Co., 1942. Reprint edition, New York: AMS Press, 1976. Republished as Canciones y Juegos de Nuevo Mexico: Songs and Games of New Mexico, South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes; London: Thomas Yosloff, 1974.

Terrill, Tom E. and Jerrold Kirsch.
Such as Us: Southern Voices of the Thirties. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978.

Tyler, Ronnie C. and Lawrence R. Murphy.
The Slave Narratives of Texas. Austin: The Encino Press, 1974.

Walker, William.
The Southern Harmony Songbook. Reproduced, with and Introduction by the Federal Writers' Project of Kentucky. New York: Hastings House, 1939.

Welsch, Roger L.
A Treasury of Nebraska Pioneer Folklore. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966.

Writers' Program, Georgia.
Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies among the Georgia Coastal Negroes. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1940. Reprint editions, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973.

Writers' Program, Illinois.
Folk Tunes: Including Square and Round Dances and Specialties. Chicago: Chicago Park District, 1942.

Writers' Program, New Hampshire.
Festal Days: Songs and Games of the Franco-Americans of New Hampshire. Manchester: Granite State Press, 194-?

Writers' Program, South Carolina.
South Carolina Folk Tales: Stories of Animals and Supernatural Beings. Columbia: Bulletin of the University of South Carolina, 1941. Reprint editions: Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions, 1974; New York: AMS Press, 1975.

Writers' Program, Virginia.
The Negro in Virginia. New York: Hastings House, 1940. Reprint edition, New York: Arno Press, 1969.

Writers' Project, Virginia.
Folk Songs to Sing. Richmond: Virginia State Board of Education, 1942.

Yetman, Norman R.
"The Backgrounds of the Slave Narrative Collection." American Quarterly, volume 19, number 3, Fall 1967, pp. 534-553.

Voices from Slavery. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. Also issued as Life Under the "Peculiar Institution": Selections from the Slave Narrative Collection.