University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Reading this book was my first introduction to the academic field of folkloristics. As I worked through it, I was entranced by the level of significance and meaning that each essay uncovered in what I naively saw as trivial cultural forms. Although now more than half a century old, many of the essays in this volume continue to be conceptually important in the field, as well as for my own research. I choose this book now in memory of Alan Dundes, who later became my teacher, and in the hopes that it will continue to inspire future generations of students and scholars in the study of folklore at Penn State.