Historic Bibliographies and Reference Aids

A Selected Bibliography on American Maritime Folksong

Compiled by: Joseph C. Hickerson
Publication Date: January 21, 1977

Abrahams, Roger D.
Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore: Three Essays on Shantying in the West Indies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974. (Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, vol. 60.)

Colcord, Joanna C.
Roll and Go: Songs of American Sailormen. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1924. Revised as Songs of American Sailormen, New York: W. W. Norton, 1938. Reprint edition, New York: Oak Publication, 1964.

Doerflinger, William M.
Shanteymen and Shanteyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman. New York: Macmillan, 1951. Reprinted as Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman, 1972.

Harlow, Frederick Pease.
Chanteying aboard American Ships. Barre, Mass.: Barre, Gazette, 1962.

Hugill, Stan.
Shanties and Sailors' Songs. London: Jenkins; New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969.

Shanties from the Seven Seas: Shipboard Work-Songs from the Great Days of Sail. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1961

Huntington, Gale.
Songs the Whalermen Sang. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishers, 1964. 2nd edition, New York: Dover Publications, 1970.

Laws, G. Malcom, Jr.
American Balladry from British Broadsides: A Guide for Students and Collectors of Traditional Song. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, Bibliograpical and Special Series, vol. 8, 1957. Pp. 140-163.

Native American Balladry: A Descriptive Study and a Bibliogrphic Syullabus. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, Bibliographical and Special Series, vol. 1, 1950. Rev. ed., 1964. Pp. 161-174, 263-265.

Neeser, Robert W.
American Naval Songs and Ballads. New York: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1938.

Shay, Frank.
Iron Men and Wooden Ships: Deep Sea Chanties. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1924. Also published as Deep Sea Chanties: Old Sea Songs, London: W. Heinemann, 1925. Reprinted as American Sea Songs and Chanteys from the Days of Iron Men and Wooden Ships, New York: W. W. Norton, 1948. Reprint edition, Freeport, New York.: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.