Richard Chase

Born:  February 15, 1904 near Huntsville, Alaska

Died:  1988

Education:  Well educated in classic literature, but not as a professional folklorist.  He graduated from Antioch College in 1929.

Tie to Virginia:  Spent muchof his life in Virginia (as well as North Carolina and Kentucky) collecting folklore.

A Few Interesting Facts:

• He is known as the man “most responsible for the renaissance of Appalachian storytelling.”  (Houghton Mifflin)
• Chase had planned on publishing a book of folktales from Wise County, Virginia, but the project was cancelled in 1942.

A Few Books Published:

• American Folk Tales and Songs, and Other Examples of English-American Tradition as Preserved in the Appalachian Mountains and Elsewhere in the United States (1956)
• The Jack Tales: Told by R. M. Ward and His Kindred in the Beech Mountain Section of Western North Carolina and by Other Descendants of Council Harmon (1803-1896) Elsewhere in the Southern Mountains: With Three Tales from Wise County, Virginia.  
• The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus  (By Joel Chandler Harris, Compiled by Richard Chase)
• Anglo-American Ballads & Songs  (1943)
• Hullabaloo, and Other Singing Folk Games  (1949)
• Grandfather Tales: American-English Folk Tales (1948)

Websites:

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=4350

http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/chasebib.htm

Return to Virginia Homepage