Katharine M. Briggs Collection

Western Michigan University is fortunate to have acquired the Katharine M. Briggs Archive for both our American Women's Poetry Collection and our Historical Children's Collection. Katharine M. Briggs (1898-1980) was a folklorist who contributed greatly to the field of British fairies and folk narratives disproving the idea Britain did not have any folk-tales. Daughter of Ernest Briggs, an eminent water-colorist, she grew up in both London and the Highlands of Scotland (Perthshire) where her father spent much of his time painting landscapes.

During her time at Oxford she became interested in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, an interest which shows up in her first academic book: The Anatomy of Puck (1959) on the treatment of fairies and witches in Shakespearian literature. Though she received her B.A. in 1922 and her M.A. in 1926, she did not complete her D.Phil. until after WWII, at which point she began her career as a British folklorist. She was an active Girl Guide, playwright and children's novelist during her adult life, aspects of which contributed to the direction of her later academic work.

Special collections holds approximately ten archive boxes containing typescript and manuscript copies of some of her later works: Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore (1980); The Vanishing People (1978); Folklore of the Cotswolds (1974); Abbey Lubbers, Banshees & Boggarts (1979); A Dictionary of Fairies (1976) and A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales (1970-1971). We also hold manuscript and typescript copies of articles: "Folk-Tale Story Tellers"; "Tradition and Invention in Ghost Stories" ; "Fairy Themes in Folktales and in Modern Children's Literature"; "Some Unpleasant Characters Among British Fairies"; "Fairies, Hobgoblins and Other Strange Creatures" (1978); "Historical Traditions in English Folklore" (1965); and a biographical notice for Edward Clodd (1979).

The collection also consists of plays she and her sisters: Winifred and Elspeth performed and wrote for an amateur touring company, The Summer Players. Family letters from the early nineteenth century, books and plays written by her sister Elspeth, items printed by Capricornus, Dunkeld run by her middle sister Winifred, and a play written by her father Ernest.

There is a large section regarding correspondence for obtaining copyrighted materials for her book Nine Lives (1980), and a correspondence with her publisher Batsford regarding The Folklore of the Cotswolds (1974) and The Vanishing People (1978). Typescripts, manuscripts and tape recorded interviews with Ruth Lyndall Tongue, a fellow folklorist and author with whom Katharine edited and collaborated with. A correspondence with Roy Palmer, fellow folklorist who contributed information for Katharine Briggs work. As well as other miscellaneous articles and typescripts sent to Katharine Briggs for review or collected by her.

For more information on Katharine M. Briggs' earlier books of folk-tales and children's literature visit the (External) Katharine Briggs papers, deGrummond Collection, University of Southern Mississippi .

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