Vance Randolph


Vance Randolph was a folklorist who studied the folklore of the Ozarks in particular. He wrote a number of books on the Ozarks, as well as Little Blue Books and juvenile fiction.

Early life

Randolph was born in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1892, the son of a lawyer and a teacher. Despite being born in a privileged home, Randolph dropped out of high school to work on left-leaning publications. This did not stop him from attending college and he graduated from what is now Pittsburg State University in 1914. He pursued graduate work at Clark University and received a Master of Arts degree in psychology. He later dedicated his book Ozark Superstitions to the memory of his Clark mentor G. Stanley Hall. In 1917, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I, and served until the next year when he was given a disability discharge, never serving overseas.

Career

In 1927, Randolph had his first article published in the Journal of American Folklore, based on work on Ozark dialect and folk beliefs. The dialect work led to multiple publications throughout the 1920s and 1930s in American Speech and Dialect Notes.
He moved to Pineville, McDonald County, Missouri in 1919. He never moved away from the Ozarks and remained in the Ozark Mountains from 1920 until his death. He made a living by writing for sporting and outdoor publications. While writing, Randolph used pseudonyms, but never for his work on the Ozark culture.
Randolph also wrote about non-folklore aspects of Ozark society, such as music. His Ozark Mountain Folks describes the creation of a distinctive church choir singing style created by a corps of uncredentialled, itinerant choral instructors.
Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales was a national bestseller. He published over a dozen works on Ozark folklore. In 1949 he and the poet John Gould Fletcher founded the Ozark Folklore Society.

Honors

In 1951, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Arkansas. A longtime member of The Missouri Folklore Society, he was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 1978.

Personal life

He met his first wife in McDonald County, Marie Wardlaw Wilbur and married in 1919. He married his second wife, Mary Celestia Parler in 1962.

Death

Randolph died in 1980 in Fayetteville, Arkansas aged 88.

Works

  • The Ozarks: An American Survival of primitive society
  • Ozark Mountain Folks
  • From an Ozark Holler: Stories of Ozark Mountain Folk
  • The Camp on Wildcat Creek
  • Hedwig
  • The Camp-Meeting Murders
  • A Reporter in the Ozarks: A Close-Up of a Picturesque and Unique Phase of American Life
  • Ozark Superstitions ; reissued as Ozark Magic and Folklore
  • Ozark Folk Songs
  • We Always Lie to Strangers
  • Who Blowed up the Church House?
  • Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech by Vance Randolph and George P. Wilson
  • The Devil's Pretty Daughter
  • The Talking Turtle
  • Sticks in the Knapsack and Other Ozark Folk Tales
  • Hot Springs and Hell and Other Folk Jests and Anecdotes from the Ozarks
  • Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales
  • Ozark Folklore: An Annotated Bibliography
  • Vance Randolph in the Ozarks
  • Roll Me in Your Arms: "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore : Volume I Folk Songs and Music
  • Blow the Candle Out: "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore : Volume II Folk Rhymes and Other Lore
  • ''Stiff As a Poker: A Collection of Ozark Folk Tales''