Research Guides: Folklore and Popular Culture in Special Collections: Vance Randolph

About Vance Randolph

Vance Randolph (1892-1980) was the foremost student of Ozark life and was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 1978. He published many popular and scholarly works, including many Little Blue Books and some juvenile fiction. His major work is collected in the four-volume Ozark Folk Songs. Vance Randolph married Mary Celestia Parler in 1962. Vance Randolph: An Ozark Life, by Robert Cochran, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1985.

Vance Randolph, Pineville, Missouri. Mary Celestia Parler Papers. (MC 1501, Box 9, File 9)

Additional Vance Randolph Materials

MC 920: Vance Randolph Manuscripts
Vance Randolph (1892 – 1980) was a folklorist who studied the folklore of the Ozarks. This collection includes Randolph's manuscripts of I Have Not Forgotten (Stories from the Ozarks); Ozark Speech (2 vols.) in collaboration with George P. Wilson; and Pissing in the Snow.
Ozark Folksong Collection
The Ozark Folksong Collection, originally recorded and compiled between 1949 and 1965, is the largest and most complete collection of traditional music and associated materials from Arkansas and the Ozarks in the nation. The physical collection contains audio recordings of songs, oral histories, anecdotes, and tales from over 700 performers. In addition there are transcriptions of lyrics, and music notations.
MC 818: Robert Cochran Collection - Vance Randolph Research Materials, 1865-1980
Robert Cochran (1943- ) is a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, professor of English and folklore specialist. He met Vance Randolph in 1976 and eventually published two books about the famous Ozark folklorist: For Love and For Money: The Writings of Vance Randolph (1979) and Vance Randolph, an Ozark Life (1983).The collection includes topical files, contains letters, photocopies, documents pertaining to the individual folder subject title, photographs and drawings of Randolph, his family, and his acquaintances.

Additional Vance Randolph Correspondence

Further correspondence between Randolph and various colleagues and acquaintances can be found in the following manuscript collections:

MC 820: E. Joan Wilson Miller Papers
E. Joan Wilson Miller is a cultural geographer who served as a professor at Illinois State University from 1968 to 1993. While there, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with her dissertation working with Ozark folklife. This collection includes copies of letters and questionnaires from Miller to Vance Randolph and letters from Randolph pertaining to Ozark folklore and place names.
MS F63: John Gould Fletcher Papers
John Gould Fletcher (1886-1950), was a writer, critic, and Pulitzer Prize winner originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. His papers include manuscripts for his literary works and correspondence.
MC 639: Charles J. Finger Papers
Charles J. Finger (c. 1867-1941) was an Anglo-American writer of travel and adventure. The collections include correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, indexes, clippings, photographs, film, and microfilm, as well as materials by Helen Finger Leflar.
MC 3: John Park Cravens Papers
John Park Cravens (1899-1971) was an Arkansas writer born near Mount Magazine, Arkansas. At the age of eighteen, he began editing and printing his own weekly newspaper, The Magazine Gazette. The collection includes correspondence, postcards, printed material, a broadside, and a scrapbook.
MC 623: Edgar A. Albin Papers
Edgar A. Albin (1908-?) was a professor of Art at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, from 1947 to 1962, where he created the Art History program. The collection includes correspondence, Albin's newspaper column and some drafts for the column, other newspaper articles by Albin, materials concerning his Fulbright tour in India, and photographs.
MS L541: Walter John Lemke Papers
Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, maps, bulletins, newspapers and other material created, received or collected by journalist-columnist- collector Lemke, University of Arkansas professor of journalism 1928-1956. The photograph series (Series IV) contains material covering students, alumni, buildings, scenes, and events from the late 1920s to the 1950s.