Richard Chase (folklorist)

Not to be confused with the contemporary professor of literature Richard Volney Chase (1914–1962).

Richard Thomas Chase^[1][2] (February 15, 1904 – February 2 1988)^[3] was an American folklorist and an authority on English-American folklore.

Richard Chase
Born	Richard Thomas Chase February 15 1904 Huntsville, Alabama, United States
Died	February 2 1988 (aged 83)
Education	Antioch College
Occupation	Folklorist
Known for	Authority on English-American literature, compiling of folk tales and game, primarily Appalachian

Biography

Career

Chase compiled and edited several books of folktales and folk games (especially Appalachian), including:

• Old Songs and Singing Games (1938) ISBN 0486228797
• The Jack Tales: told by RM Ward and his kindred in the Beech Mountain section of Western North Carolina and by other descendants of Council Harmon (1803-1896) elsewhere in the southern mountains; with three tales from Wise County, Virginia (1943) ISBN 0395066948
• Grandfather Tales: American-English Folk Tales (1948), ISBN 9780618346912
• Hullabaloo, and Other Singing Folk Games (1949)
• The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus (1955) ISBN 0618154299
• American Folk Tales and Songs and other examples of English-American traditions as preserved in the Appalachian Mountains and elsewhere in the United States. (1956) ISBN 0486226921
• "American Folk Tales and Songs: with Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie singing and Richard Chase Telling Tales" September 4, 1956
• various spoken word recordings including Richard Chase Tells Three Grandfather Tales.

Personal life

Chase was born near Huntsville, Alabama and graduated Antioch College in 1929. He lived in California from 1964 to 1975 and was a regular at the Southern Renaissance Pleasure Faire, created by Ron and Phyllis Patterson, in Ventura County, California, where he is remembered for holding court under a large oak tree. He introduced English Country Dancing to the faire, bringing a group of his students from Claremont College. Chase had one daughter, Ann Gay Chase Applegate.^[4][5]