14 Facts About Richard Dorson

Richard Mercer Dorson was an American folklorist, professor, and director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University.

Richard Dorson was born in New York City into a wealthy Jewish family.

Richard Dorson studied at the Phillips Exeter Academy from 1929 to 1933.

Richard Dorson began teaching as an instructor of history at Harvard in 1943.

Richard Dorson moved to Michigan State University in 1944 staying there until 1957 when he took a position at Indiana University as professor of history and folklore as well as that of chairman of the Committee on Folklore.

Richard Dorson brought the eminent folklorist Linda Degh to Bloomington, who revolutionized American folklore research.

Richard Dorson was the general editor of the "Folktales of the World", a multivolume series published by the University of Chicago Press.

Richard Dorson was elected president of the American Folklore Society, 1966 to 1968.

Richard Dorson wrote that "no subject of study in the United States today [1976] is more misunderstood than folklore".

Richard Dorson contributed two terms to the study of folklore that have gained common currency.

Richard Dorson coined the word "fakelore" in a debate with author James Stevens.

Richard Dorson dismissed Stevens' book on Paul Bunyan, and the later work of Ben Botkin as fakelore, or "a synthetic product claiming to be authentic oral tradition but actually tailored for mass edification", which "misled and gulled the public".

Richard Dorson's fieldwork touched upon African-American folklore in Michigan, folklore of the Upper Peninsula, other regional folklore in the United States, the folklore of Japan, and other topics.

Richard Dorson's papers are held at the Lilly Library of Indiana University.