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 Katharine Briggs papers, deGrummond Collection,
University of Southern Mississippi at http://avatar.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/.
Finding Aid Catharine M. Briggs Archive
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