Botkin, Benjamin Albert, 1901-1975

Benjamin A. Botkin was born in 1901 in Boston, Mass. He began Harvard at age 15, graduating magna cum laude at 19, and earned a MA in English literature from Columbia. He then taught english at the University of Oklahoma before studying with folklore scholar Louise Pound at the University of Nebraska where he received a Ph.D. in 1931. In 1937, Botkin accepted a position as the national folklore editor for the Federal Writers' Project. He also served as the co-founder and chairman of the WPA Joint Committee on Folk Arts, and chief editor of the Writers' unit of the Library of Congress. From 1942-1944 Botkin served as curator of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song. He left this position to become a free-lance writer. He edited and published numerous regional folklore treasuries relating to American, Southern, Western, New England, railroad, and Mississippi River folklore. Botkin died in 1975.

From the description of [Poetry unpublished manuscripts and related materials] 1916-1970 [manuscripts] / Benjamin A. Botkin. (University of Nebraska - Lincoln). WorldCat record id: 299575727

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