Dorothy Gladys Spicer
{{short description|American folklorist}}
{{Hatnote|This article is about the American writer born in 1893; for the English aviator born in 1908 with a similar name, see Dorothy Spicer.}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dorothy Gladys Spicer
| image = DorothyGladysSpicer1916.png
| alt = A young white woman with short dark hair, wearing glasses and a white blouse
| caption = Dorothy Gladys Spicer, from the 1916 yearbook of Vassar College
| other_names = Gladys Spicer Fraser
| birth_name =
| birth_date = November 3, 1893
| birth_place = Staten Island, New York
| death_date = January 25, 1975 (age 81)
| death_place = White Plains, New York
| occupation = Folklorist, writer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Dorothy Gladys Spicer (November 3, 1893 – January 25, 1975), also known as Gladys Spicer Fraser, was an American folklorist and writer.
Early life and education
Spicer was born in Staten Island, New York, the daughter of Jacob Lindley Spicer and Phoebe Bryan Washburn Spicer. Her father was a Quaker field secretary and police chaplin,{{Cite news |date=1928-05-20 |title=Rev. J. L. Spicer, Police Chaplin, Dies at Home |pages=3 |work=The Brooklyn Citizen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121123826/rev-j-l-spicer-police-chaplin-dies/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} and her mother was a registered nurse.{{Cite news |date=1942-12-01 |title=Veteran Nurse Dies |pages=11 |work=The Post-Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121122476/veteran-nurse-dies/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She graduated from Vassar College in 1916.Vassar College, Vassarion (1916 yearbook): 107.{{Cite journal |date=December 1, 1941 |title=1916 (class notes) |url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=vq19411201-01.2.43&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------- |journal=Vassar Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=23 |via=Vassar Newspaper and Magazine Archive}} She earned a master's degree from Radcliffe College.{{Cite news |date=1943-06-20 |title=Learned about Folklore from People |pages=17 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121124045/learned-about-folklore-from-people/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Spicer was on the staff of the national board of the YWCA.{{Cite news |date=1943-06-22 |title=Boro 'Y' Names Woman Writer to High Post |pages=3 |work=The Brooklyn Citizen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121124793/boro-y-names-woman-writer-to-high-post/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Cushman |first=Elizabeth |date=1937-10-02 |title='Book of Festivals', Just Published, is Work of Dorothy Gladys Spicer |pages=8 |work=Mount Vernon Argus |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121125934/book-of-festivals-just-published-is/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1943, she was named nationality communities secretary of the YWCA,{{Cite news |date=1944-01-09 |title=Festival Customs |pages=13 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121124468/festival-customs/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} responsible for outreach to immigrant groups.{{Cite news |last=Corby |first=Jane |date=1929-01-23 |title=Helps Foreign-Born Women to Keep Up with their Americanized Husbands--Through Neighborliness |pages=28 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121130913/helps-foreign-born-women-to-keep-up/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She organized classes about American cookery{{Cite news |last=Pettigrew |first=Margaret |date=1943-09-22 |title=Learn Fine Points of Our Cookery |pages=8 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121125167/learn-fine-points-of-our/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} and gave presentations to community groups about ethnic customs and celebrations, based on her research and travels in Europe.{{Cite news |date=1932-03-13 |title=Two Y.W.C.A. Groups Plan Parties This Week |pages=60 |work=Times Union |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121124643/two-ywca-groups-plan-parties-this/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was art adviser to the Utica Festival of Arts and Crafts in 1938, and advised the New Jersey State Museum on an exhibit of Latin American arts and crafts.
She was a full-time writer after midlife, with broader travels to China, Ceylon, and the Middle East. "Once you become a sleuth in such matters, each hour is an adventure, each day a journey into the unknown," she explained to a reporter in 1960.{{Cite news |last=Erbeck |first=Janett R. |date=1960-11-07 |title=Two Books Just Published Bring City Author's Record to 14 |pages=11 |work=The Reporter Dispatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121125465/two-books-just-published-bring-city/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Publications
In addition to her books on folk customs for adults, Spicer wrote cookbooks,{{Cite news |last=McCarroll |first=Marion Clyde |date=1949-02-07 |title=English Specialties for American Cooks |pages=12 |work=The Evening News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121130539/english-specialties-for-american/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} fiction, and a series of story collections for children, with the matching titles 13 Monsters, 13 Witches (1963), 13 Ghosts (1965), 13 Giants (1966), 13 Devils (1967),{{Cite news |last=Colvin |first=Martha T. |date=1973-06-11 |title=Folklore Fantasies Fascinate Children |pages=11 |work=Springfield News-Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121131559/folklore-fantasies-fascinate/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} 13 Goblins, 13 Rascals, and 13 Dragons (1974).{{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y6cTAUtCMZsC |title=13 Dragons |date=1974 |publisher=Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |isbn=978-0-698-20254-2 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1975-01-29 |title=Galdys Fraser |pages=11 |work=The Reporter Dispatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121131771/galdys-fraser/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She wrote classroom plays,{{Cite book |last=Bzowski |first=Frances Diodato |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cogUAQAAIAAJ&q=spicer |title=American Women Playwrights, 1900-1930: A Checklist |date=1992 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-24238-0 |pages=344 |language=en}} including The Song of the Coffee Bird (1932) for a curriculum package distributed by the Bureau of Coffee Information.{{Cite journal |date=February 1934 |title=Publications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=75CYxg0s26IC&dq=The+Song+of+the+Coffee+Bird&pg=RA81-PA11 |journal=Nevada Educational Bulletin |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=11}}{{Cite book |last=Library of Congress Copyright Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEhhAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20Song%20of%20the%20Coffee%20Bird%20Spicer&pg=PA336 |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and Motion Pictures. New Series |date=1933 |pages=336 |language=en}}
- Folk Festivals and the Foreign Community (1923){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277715 |title=Folk festivals and the foreign community |date=1923 |publisher=The Woman's Press |location=New York, N.Y.}}{{Cite journal |last=Redfield |first=Margaret Park |date=May 1925 |title=Folk Festivals and the Foreign Community. Dorothy Gladys Spicer |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/213798 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |language=en |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=745–746 |doi=10.1086/213798 |issn=0002-9602}}
- "Health Practices and Beliefs of the Immigrant Mother as Seen by a Social Worker" (1926)Spicer, Dorothy Gladys. "Health Practices and Beliefs of the Immigrant Mother as Seen by a Social Worker." Hygeia 4 (1926): 319-21.
- Holiday Parties (1939){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009821407 |title=Holiday parties |date=1939 |publisher=The Woman's Press |location=New York}}
- Parties for young Americans (1940){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006567870 |title=Parties for young Americans |date=1940 |publisher=The Woman's Press |location=New York}}
- Latin American costumes (1941, with Yolanda Bartas and André Gloeckner){{Cite book |last1=Spicer |first1=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277441 |title=Latin American costumes |last2=Gloeckner |first2=André. |last3=Bartas |first3=Jolanda |date=1941 |publisher=The Hyperion Press |location=New York}}{{Cite news |last=Gives |first=John Selby |date=1941-12-24 |title=Literary Guide |pages=8 |work=The Daily Ardmoreite |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121126167/literary-guidejohn-selby-gives/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- Windows Open to the World: a Handbook of World Fellowship Projects (1946){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGvHGaW4ib8C |title=Windows Open to the World: A Handbook of World Fellowship Projects |date=1946 |publisher=Woman's Press |language=en}}
- From an English Oven--Cakes, Buns and Breads of County Tradition (1948){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007395502 |title=From an English oven; cakes, buns and breads of county tradition |date=1948 |publisher=Women's Press |location=New York}}
- Folk Party Fun (1954){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009078712 |title=Folk party fun |date=1954 |publisher=Association Press |location=New York}}
- Yearbook of English festivals (1954){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277747 |title=Yearbook of English festivals. |date=1954 |publisher=H. W. Wilson Co. |location=New York}}
- Festivals of Western Europe (1958){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277744 |title=Festivals of Western Europe. |date=1958 |publisher=H.W. Wilson Co. |location=New York}}
- Feast-Day Cakes from Many Lands (1960)
- 46 Days of Christmas (1960){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000575400 |title=46 days of Christmas; a cycle of Old World songs, legends and customs. |date=1960 |publisher=Coward-McCann |location=New York}}
- The Book of Festivals (1937){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277714 |title=The book of festivals |date=1937 |publisher=The Woman's Press |location=New York, N.Y.}}
- The Owl's Nest: Folktales from Friesland (1968, with illustrations by Alice Wadowski-Bak){{Cite book |last1=Spicer |first1=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001032222 |title=The owl's nest; folktales from Friesland. |last2=Wadowski-Bak |first2=Alice |date=1968 |publisher=Coward-McCann |location=New York}}
- Long Ago in Serbia (1968, with Linda Ominsky){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy Gladys |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ihPaAAAAMAAJ |title=Long Ago in Serbia |date=1968 |publisher=Westminster Press |language=en}}
- The Humming Top (1968)
- The kneeling tree, and other folktales from the Middle East (1971)
- The Crystal Ball (1975, novel){{Cite book |last=Spicer |first=Dorothy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8470539 |title=The crystal ball |date=1975 |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-26696-X |location=New York |oclc=8470539}}
Personal life
Spicer married Malcolm Charles Fraser in 1925; they divorced in 1927.{{Cite news |date=1927-01-20 |title=Decrees Granted |pages=8 |work=Reno Gazette-Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121125288/decrees-granted/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1975, at the age of 81, in White Plains, New York.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{ISFDB name|132045}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spicer, Dorothy Gladys}}
Category:Writers from White Plains, New York
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:American women folklorists
Category:Vassar College alumni