Dorothy Scarborough (1878- 1937)
[Scarborough is included in my collectors section on the strength of her two books; On the Trail of Negro Folksongs (1925) and A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains (published after she died in 1937) and her article, Blues as Folk-Songs (Texas Folklore Society - 1916). Certainly On the Trail of Negro Folksongs (see in my collection- under books) is an important book.
Her article, Blues as Folk-Songs (Texas Folklore Society- 1916) featuring an interview with WC Handy, is attached to this page. From my Grandfather's collection I have a copy of A Song Catcher which she finished before she died. Dorothy planned to do some rewrites, which were not done. Matteson 2011]
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SCARBOROUGH, EMILY DOROTHY
Sylvia Grider, "SCARBOROUGH, EMILY DOROTHY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsc01), accessed September 21, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Dorothy Scarborough was the youngest child of Mary Adelaide (Ellison) and John Bledsoe Scarborough, a Confederate veteran from Louisiana and successful Texas lawyer. Dorothy was born on January 27, 1878, in Mount Carmel, a small Smith County community near Tyler. Her brother, George Moore Scarborough, who graduated from the University of Texas law school in 1897, went on to become a successful playwright. Her sister, Martha Douglass (Mrs. George McDaniel), had degrees from Vassar and Baylor and eventually published three books.
The family moved to Sweetwater, in West Texas, in 1882 because Mrs. Scarborough needed the dry climate for her health. They left Sweetwater in 1887 and moved to Waco so that the children could have a good education at Baylor. Judge Scarborough became a member of the Baylor University board of trustees in 1888 and served until his death in 1905. Dorothy made her home in Waco until she moved permanently to New York City, where in 1916 she began to teach at Columbia University.
Scarborough received her B.A. from Baylor in 1896 and her M.A. in 1899. She pursued further graduate work in literature at the University of Chicago in the summers from 1906 to 1910. She spent the 1910–11 school year in residence at Oxford University in England, even though women could not be awarded degrees there at that time. She went on for the doctorate in literature at Columbia University and received the degree in 1917. She was hired immediately to teach creative writing in the extension division of Columbia. In 1923 Baylor University awarded her an honorary doctor of literature degree.
"Miss Dottie's" career falls into three categories: those of teacher, folklorist, and writer. While completing her master's degree she taught English at Baylor and also taught briefly in the public schools of Marlin, Texas. As a regular faculty member at Baylor from 1905 to 1915, she taught general literature courses, composition, creative writing, and journalism. She also taught a popular and influential college-men's Sunday school class at the First Baptist Church in Waco. Her progress at Columbia was marked by her promotion to lecturer in 1919, to assistant professor in 1923, and to associate professor in 1931. Her teaching emphasis was creative writing, especially the techniques of the short story and novel.
The study of folklore in Texas was in infancy when Scarborough was teaching at Baylor. She was an early member of the Texas Folklore Society, which was founded in 1910, and served as president of the society in 1914–15. As reflected in her publications, her interests as a folklorist were generally in folksongs, cowboys, and the lore of the Negro. In addition to various essays and articles, she published two major folklore collections, On the Trail of Negro Folksongs (1925) and A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains (1937, posthumous).
Dorothy Scarborough was preeminently a novelist whose works dealt primarily with the plight and role of women in Texas and elsewhere, although she also had an interest in ghosts, sharecroppers, cowboys, and other local characters and settings. In the Land of Cotton (1923), Can't Get a Redbird (1929), and The Stretch-Berry Smile (1932) examine the crushing responsibilities of cotton farming on the children of tenant farmers and sharecroppers. These novels, plus her juvenile reader, The Story of Cotton (1933), vividly depict all aspects of cotton farming, from planting to chopping to picking and finally to ginning and selling.
Scarborough's books include From a Southern Porch (1919), Impatient Griselda (1927), The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction (1917), The Unfair Sex (serialized, 1925–26), and The Wind (1925). This last, controversial, novel, in which a gentle heroine is driven insane by the incessant wind and drought-plagued frontier environment, has assured her reputation as an American regional novelist. The book created a furor in Texas when it was published because of its negative portrayal of frontier living conditions on the cattle ranges around Sweetwater in the 1880s. The book was also published anonymously as a publicity ploy. Today, however, many critics regard this novel as a Texas classic, notable for its characterization of a tragic heroine driven to murder and insanity. The Wind was made into a movie in 1927 starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hansen. That movie is probably the last great silent film, even though the producers inexplicably destroyed the artistic unity of the story by tacking on a happy ending unrelated to the ending of the novel.
Scarborough also edited three books, Famous Modern Ghost Stories (1921), Humorous Ghost Stories (1921), and Selected Short Stories of Today (1935). Her first book was a collection of her own poetry, Fugitive Verses (1912). She also published poetry in various magazines and journals at Baylor and elsewhere. Her other literary productions include short stories, book reviews (she was on the literary staff of the New York Sun), critical essays, and articles dealing primarily with folklore and other literary topics.
Dorothy Scarborough died on November 7, 1935, at her home in New York City and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dictionary of American Biography. Dorothy Scarborough Manuscripts, Texas Collection, Baylor University. Who Was Who in America, Vol. 4.
Sylvia Grider
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Dorothy Scarborough
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dorothy Scarborough
Born January 27, 1878 (1878-01-27)
Mount Carmel, Texas
Died November 7, 1935 (1935-11-07) (aged 57)
New York City, New York
Occupation Writer, professor and literary critic
Literary movement: American folklore
Notable work(s): The Wind
Dorothy Scarborough (born Emily Dorothy Scarborough, January 27, 1878 - died November 7, 1935) was an American writer who wrote about Texas, folk culture, cotton farming, ghost stories and a woman's life in the Southwest.
Early Life
Scarborough was born in Mount Carmel, Texas. At the age of four she moved to Sweetwater, Texas for her mother's health, as her mother needed the drier climate. The family soon left Sweetwater in 1887, so that the Scarborough children could get a good education at Baylor College.
Academics and Writing
Even though Scarborough's writings are identified with Texas, she studied at University of Chicago and Oxford University and beginning in 1916 taught literature at Columbia University.
While receiving her PhD from Columbia, she wrote a dissertation, "The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction (1917)". Sylvia Ann Grider writes in a critical introduction [1] the dissertation "was so widely acclaimed by her professors and colleagues that it was published and it has become a basic reference work."
Dorothy Scarborough came in contact with many writers in New York, including Edna Ferber and Vachel Lindsay. She taught creative writing classes at Columbia. Among her creative writing students were Eric Walrond, and Carson McCullers, who took her first college writing class from Scarborough.[1]
Her most critically acclaimed book, The Wind, was later made into a film of the same name starring Lilian Gish.
Original works
Fugitive Verses (1912), original verses
The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction (1917); available in its entirety at Google Book Search
From a Southern Porch (1919), viewable in full at Google Book Search or viewable at the Portal to Texas History
Humorous Ghost Stories (1921) edited
In the Land of Cotton (1923)
On the Trail of Negro Folksongs (1925) available at archive.org
The Wind (1925), considered her most acclaimed work.
The Unfair Sex (serialized, 1925–26)
Impatient Griselda (1927)
Can't Get a Redbird (1929)
Stretch-Berry Smile (1932)
The Story of Cotton (1933) juvenile reader
Selected Short Stories of Today (1935)
Song Catcher in Southern Mountains: American Folk Songs of British Ancestry (1937, posthumous)
Works by Dorothy Scarborough at Project Gutenberg:
Famous Modern Ghost Stories at Project Gutenberg; edited by Dorothy Scarborough, with critical introduction
Biographical/critical essaysBiographical
Essay on the Handbook of Texas Online Foreword to The Wind by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979.
Footnotes
1.^ a b Foreword to The Wind by Sylvia Ann Grider, Barker Texas History Center series, University of Texas Press, 1979.
References
Dorothy Scarborough from the Handbook of Texas Online