'''MacEdward Leach''' (1892-1967) was an American folklorist, whose work "greatly influenced the development of folklore as an academic discipline".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada {{!}} Biography - Personal |url=https://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/biography/personal.htm |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.mun.ca}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Leach was born near Bridgeport, Illinois. Later in life he sometimes gave his birth date as 1896, seemingly to avoid forced retirement.<ref name=":0" />
Leach graduated with a MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1917: his master's thesis was on the legend of the Holy Grail.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Holy Grail: being a comparison of the ceremony described in the Arthurian romances with the rites of initiation among primitive peoples |date=1916 |language=English |first=MacEdward |last=Leach| oclc=435687767 }}</ref> He then researched for a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania: studying under the Americanist, Cornelius Weygandt and anthropologist, Frank Speck.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hand |first=Wayland D. |date=1968 |title=MacEdward Leach (1896-1967) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1498771 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=43–44 |jstor=1498771 |issn=0043-373X}}</ref>
Leach completed his doctorate, which dealt with the use of Celtic tradition in literature, in 1930.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada {{!}} Biography - Training |url=https://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/biography/training.htm |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.mun.ca}}</ref>
== Personal life == Leach was married twice, first to Alice May (Maria) Doane, with whom he had a son, Donald. His second marriage was Nancy Rafetto, with whom he also had a son, Douglas.<ref name=":0" />
Maria Leach was also a renowned folklorist: amongst her publications were ''The Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend'' (1949–50) and ''The Rainbow Book of American Tales and Legends'' (1958).<ref>{{Cite news |date=1977-05-24 |title=Maria Leach Dies at 85, Editor Of Major Works, Covering Folklore |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/24/archives/maria-leach-dies-at-85-editor-of-major-works-covering-folklore.html |access-date=2022-05-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== Career == After the completion of his doctorate Leach developed and taught courses on folklore within the University of Pennsylvania's Department of English. Over time, he adapted English literature courses he inherited into folklore courses: one titled "The Epic and Short Story', he gradually changed into a general folklore course, another on the literary ballad he transformed it into a folk ballad course.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=Clements |first1=William M |title=100 years of American folklore studies: a conceptual history |last2=American Folklore Society |date=1988 |publisher=American Folklore Society |location=Washington (D.C.) |language=English |oclc=600721489}}</ref> By 1959 Leach had developed a doctoral program in folklore and folklife - the second in the United States.<ref name=":4" /> A Folklore department was established at the University in 1962.<ref name=":2" />
Early in his career, Leach carried out fieldwork in the Southern mountain regions of the United States, as well as in the John Crow Mountains in Jamaica. Later in life, mostly likely influenced by his Cape Breton born first wife,<ref name=":0" /> Leach carried out four collecting trips to Atlantic Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada {{!}} Biography - Fieldwork |url=https://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/biography/fieldwork.htm |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.mun.ca}}</ref> The recordings Leach made in Canada have since been made available online.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Diamond |first1=Beverley |last2=Brodie |first2=Ian |date=2013 |title=MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada |url=https://journal.oraltradition.org/wp-content/uploads/files/articles/28ii/19_28.2.pdf |journal=Oral Tradition |volume=28/2 |pages=335–340}}</ref>
Leach was regarded as a charismatic lecturer who established the University of Pennsylvania as a well-respected site for the academic study of folklore and had an enormous impact on the folklorists he taught.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Greenway |first1=John |last2=Abrahams |first2=Roger D. |last3=Alspach |first3=Russell K. |last4=Beck |first4=Horace P. |last5=Briggs |first5=Katharine M. |last6=Browne |first6=Ray B. |last7=Coffin |first7=Tristram P. |last8=Dorson |first8=Richard M. |last9=Fenton |first9=William N. |last10=Garbáty |first10=Thomas Jay |last11=Gillmor |first11=Frances |date=1968 |title=MacEdward Leach, 1892-1967 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/537661 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=81 |issue=320 |pages=97–120 |jstor=537661 |issn=0021-8715}}</ref> One obituary credited him with being "a key man in the revolutionizing of the teaching of folklore in the United States".<ref name=":1" />
MacEdward Leach spent his entire career at the university, retiring in 1966. His successor as Chair of the Folklore department was Don Yoder.<ref name=":4" />
== Recognition == Leach served as both Secretary-Treasurer (1943–1960) and President (1961–1962)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past AFS Presidents |url=https://americanfolkloresociety.org/about/board/past-afs-presidents/ |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=The American Folklore Society |language=en-US}}</ref> of the American Folklore Society (AFS). He has been credited with an enormous impact on the Society, having "almost single-handedly nurtured that organization from near collapse to vigor".<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=American folklore : an encyclopedia |date=1996 |others=Jan Harold Brunvand |isbn=0-8153-0751-9 |location=New York |pages=910 |oclc=34046325}}</ref> His impact as an administrator included promoting the growth of local American folklore societies to aid the AFS and generating revenue for the AFS by creating a Bibliographical and Special Series of publications.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" />
== Selected publications == Leach, MacEdward (1941). Logical Articulation. ''The English Journal'', ''30''(9), 754–764. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2307/805900</nowiki>
Leach, MacEdward; Beck, Horace P. (1950). "Songs from Rappahannock County, Virginia". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. '''63''' (249): 257. {{doi|10.2307/536528}}
Leach, MacEdward. 1958. 'Folklore in American Colleges and Universities'. ''Journal of American Folklore Supplement,'' pp10–11.
Leach, MacEdward. (1955). ''The Ballad Book''. New York: Harper.
Leach, MacEdward. (1957). Folksong and Ballad. A New Emphasis. ''The Journal of American Folklore'', ''70''(277), 205–207. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2307/538317</nowiki>
Leach, MacEdward. (1957). 'Celtic Tales from Cape Breton' in W.E. Richmond, ed. ''Studies in Folklore.'' Bloomington: Indiana University University Press. 1957.
Leach, MacEdward (1960). "Reply to Maud Karpeles". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. '''73''' (289): 275. {{doi|10.2307/538005}}
Leach, MacEdward, and Coffin, Tristram P. (1961). ''The Critics and the Ballad''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Leach, MacEdward (1961). ''Studies in medieval literature. In honor of Professor Albert Croll Baugh''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Leach, MacEdward (1961). "Jamaican Duppy Lore". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. '''74''' (293): 207. {{doi|10.2307/537633}}
Leach, MacEdward (1962-06). "Problems of Collecting Oral Literature". ''Publications of the Modern Language Association of America''. '''77''' (3): 335–340. {{doi|10.2307/460494}} ISSN 0030-8129.
Leach, MacEdward (1963). "Folklore of Jamaica: A Survey." ''Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde'' 59: 60–81.
Leach, MacEdward (1963). "What Shall We Do with "Little Matty Groves"?". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. '''76''' (301): 189. {{doi|10.2307/538519}}
Leach, MacEdward (1964). "Matthew Arnold and 'Celtic Magic'." In Ray B. Browne et al., eds. ''The Celtic Cross. Studies in Irish Culture and Literature."'' Lafayette: Purdue University Studies.
Leach, MacEdward. (1965). ''Folk Ballads and Songs of the lower Labrador Coast.'' Ottawa: National Museum.
Leach, MacEdward (1966). "Folklore in American Regional Literature". ''Journal of the Folklore Institute''. '''3''' (3): 376. {{doi|10.2307/3813808}}
Leach, MacEdward (1966). "John Henry." In ''Folklore and Society: Essays in Honor of Benjamin A. Botkin.'' Hatboro, PA: Folklore Associates.
Leach, MacEdward (1966). ''Songs from the Outports of Newfoundland'' (sound recording). Washington: Smithsonian Folkways. FE 4075. 1966.
Leach, MacEdward (1967). "Superstitions of South Scotland from a Manuscript of Thomas Wilkie." In D.K. Wilgus & Carol Sommer, ed. ''Folklore International.'' Hatboro: Folklore Associates.
Leach, MacEdward and Glassie, Henry (1968) ''A guide for collectors of oral traditions and folk cultural material in Pennsylvania.'' With Henry Glassie. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Leach, MacEdward (1967). "The Men Who Made Folklore a Scholarly Discipline." In Tristram Coffin, ed. ''Our Living Tradition: An Introduction to American Folklore.'' New York: Basic Books, 1968.
Leach, MacEdward (1973). ''The Terror of Quidi Vidi Lake: and other Newfoundland ghost poems.'' Agincourt: Book Society of Canada. 1973.
== External links == * [https://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/index.html MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada]
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, MacEdward}} Category:1892 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:American folklorists Category:Presidents of the American Folklore Society