Barre Toelken
{{short description|American folklorist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Barre Toelken
| image =
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| caption =
| birth_name = John Barre Toelken
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1935|06|15}}
| birth_place = Enfield, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|11|9|1935|06|15}}
| death_place = Logan, Utah
| nationality = American
| spouse = Midori "Miiko"
| children = 6
| other_names =
| occupation =
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}}
John Barre Toelken ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|r|i|_|ˈ|t|oʊ|l|k|ə|n}}; June 15, 1935{{dash}}November 9, 2018) was an award-winning American folklorist, noted for his study of Native American material and oral traditions.{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Randy |title=Barre Toelken (1935–2018) |journal=Folklore |date=3 April 2019 |volume=130 |issue=2 |pages=203–206 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.2019.1574426 |s2cid=197854807 |doi-access=free }}
Early life and education
Barre Toelken was born in Enfield, Massachusetts, to parents John and Sylvia Toelken. The family later moved to Springfield. He began to attend the Utah State University in 1953,{{cite news |title=Barre Toelken, Renowned Folklorist and Beloved Professor, Dies at Age 83 |url=https://www.usu.edu/today/index.cfm?id=58105 |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |publisher=Utah State University |date=November 15, 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Irwin |first1=Matthew |title=Barre Toelken: Folklorist of Culture and Performance |url=http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/dstanley/folklore/edited%20final%20draft/fiu10irwin.htm |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117071625/http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/dstanley/folklore/edited%20final%20draft/fiu10irwin.htm |archive-date=November 17, 2016 |url-status=dead }} where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. Toelken completed a master's degree in English literature from Washington State University, followed by a doctorate from the University of Oregon.{{cite news |title=Barre Toelken Papers, 1960-2003 |url=http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv94607 |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |publisher=Orbis Cascade Alliance}}
Career
Toelken began his teaching career at the University of Oregon in 1966.{{cite news |last1=Toelken |first1=Kazuko |last2=Spooner |first2=Michael |title=J. Barre Toelken |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hjnews/obituary.aspx?n=j-barre-toelken&pid=190781619 |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |work=The Herald Journal |date=November 20, 2018}}{{cite AV media |people=Toelken, Barre; Wilson, William A.; Lloyd, Barbara |date=October 14, 2004 |title=A Conversation with Barre Toelken and William A. (Bert) Wilson|url=https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/media_objects/8s45q901q|access-date= November 21, 2018}} During nearly twenty years at the University, Toelken would serve as director for both Folklore and Ethnic Studies and also the Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore. Toelken returned to Utah State in 1985: there he would serve as the director of the Folklore Program and co-director of the Fife Folklore Conference.
Toelken was known for his research into Navajo folklore, namely with the Yellowman family. Decades later, Toelken destroyed most of the physical records originating from his work with the Yellowman family, choosing to leave a set of cassette tapes with members of the family, not within an archive.{{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=The Yellowman Tapes, 1966-1997 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |date=1998 |volume=111 |issue=442 |pages=381–391 |doi=10.2307/541046 |jstor=541046 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_facpub/712/ }}
Recognition
Over the course of his career, Toelken was president of the American Folklore Society from 1977 to 1978, and edited the Journal of American Folklore and Western Folklore. The American Folklore Society granted Toelken fellowship in 1981. He received four of the association's major awards: the Américo Paredes Prize and the Chicago Folklore Prize, both in 2007, followed by the Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership and the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award, in 2011 and 2016, respectively.{{cite news |last1=Opsahl |first1=Kevin |title='Connections with each other': Barre Toelken receives folklore lifetime achievement award |url=https://www.hjnews.com/logan_hj/connections-with-each-other-barre-toelken-receives-folklore-lifetime-achievement/article_0fd4e11b-a300-5e7e-a493-907d82a14afc.html |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |work=The Herald Journal |date=October 29, 2016}}{{cite news |last1=McGriff |first1=Meredith |title=Barre Toelken (1935 - 2018) |url=https://www.afsnet.org/news/426538/Barre-Toelken-1935---2018.htm |accessdate=November 21, 2018 |publisher=American Folklore Society |date=November 12, 2018}}
Toelken also served on the boards of a number of organisations, including the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts Folklife Program, the Western Folklife Center, Utah Arts Council, and the International Ballad Commission.
Later years
Toelken died in Logan, Utah, on November 9, 2018, aged 83.
Selected publications
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=J. Barre |title=The Ballad of the 'Mountain Meadows Massacre' |journal=Western Folklore |date=April 1959 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=169–172 |doi=10.2307/1496486 |jstor=1496486 }}
- {{cite book |doi=10.7560/724150-010 |chapter=The 'Pretty Languages' of Yellowman: Genre, Mode, and Texture in Navaho Coyote Narratives |title=Folklore Genres |year=1976 |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |pages=145–170 |isbn=978-0-292-73509-5 |s2cid=192956069 |chapter-url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_facpub/695/ }}
- Toelken, Barre. (1979) Dynamics of Folklore. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. OCLC 490869905.
- {{cite book |last1=Iwasaka |first1=Michiko |last2=Toelken |first2=Barre |title=Ghosts and the Japanese: cultural experience in Japanese death legends |date=1994 |publisher=Utah State University Press |isbn=978-0-87421-179-5 |oclc=30518351 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=Morning dew and roses: nuance, metaphor, and meaning in folksongs |date=1995 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02134-3 |oclc=807804619 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=The Yellowman Tapes, 1966-1997 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |date=1998 |volume=111 |issue=442 |pages=381–391 |doi=10.2307/541046 |jstor=541046 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_facpub/712/ }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=The End of Folklore. The 1998 Archer Taylor Memorial Lecture |journal=Western Folklore |date=1998 |volume=57 |issue=2/3 |pages=81–101 |doi=10.2307/1500214 |jstor=1500214 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Evers |first1=Larry |last2=Toelken |first2=Barre |title=Native American oral traditions: collaboration and interpretation |date=2001 |publisher=Utah State University Press |isbn=978-0-87421-415-4 |oclc=884003618 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=Anguish Of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West |date=2003 |publisher=University Press of Colorado |doi=10.2307/j.ctt46nqrg |isbn=978-0-87421-555-7 |jstor=j.ctt46nqrg |s2cid=96454321 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=The Heritage Arts Imperative |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |date=2003 |volume=116 |issue=460 |pages=196–205 |doi=10.1353/jaf.2003.0033 |jstor=4137898 |s2cid=162266860 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_facpub/702 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=Silence, Ellipsis, and Camouflage in the English-Scottish Popular Ballad |journal=Western Folklore |date=2003 |volume=62 |issue=1/2 |pages=83–96 |jstor=1500447 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Toelken |first1=Barre |title=Beauty Behind Me; Beauty Before (AFS Address) |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |date=2004 |volume=117 |issue=466 |pages=441–445 |doi=10.1353/jaf.2004.0103 |jstor=4137719 |s2cid=161176797 }}
References
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Category:University of Oregon alumni
Category:University of Oregon faculty
Category:Utah State University alumni
Category:Utah State University faculty
Category:Washington State University alumni
Category:American academic journal editors
Category:People from Enfield, Massachusetts
Category:Writers from Springfield, Massachusetts
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American male writers