English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. I

by Francis James Child (editor)

A brief biographical sketch of Francis Child prefaces his compilation of versions of and commentary upon English and Scottish traditional ballads

Genres: Music, Poetry, Folklore, History, Anthologies, Classics

508 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1965

About the author

Francis James Child (1825-1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he began work on the Child Ballads.

The Child Ballads were published in five volumes between 1882 and 1898. While Child was primarily a literary scholar with little interest in the music of the ballads, his work became a major contribution to the study of English-language folk music.

Reviews

[Bob Douglas]

F J Child

Fascinating read. It is just a pity there is not any music to go with the words although I recently found books by B H Bronson. He has variations of music to go with Child's words.

[Sarah]

Read selections of the work for a module on Ballads and Popular Romance

[Toad Soup]

I read this entire thing for my thesis just to tell you that here people are OBSESSED with elf knights

[Kathleen Tahk]

This is the classic resource for the popular ballads at the heart of 20th century pop music. Not only did Child collect a tremendous wealth of ballads, he also provides multiple variants on many of them, which illuminate the various mutations each one underwent. Absolutely fascinating for its strange collection of murder ballads.