Finding aid prepared by:

Processed by Win Lanchester; Re-processed by Verlon L. Stone; Encoded by Amanda Harlan

Summary Information

Repository: Indiana University Archives
107 South Indiana Avenue
Bryan Hall 201
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Fax: 812-855-8104
Email: archives@indiana.edu
Creator: Reuss, Richard A.
Title: Richard A. Reuss papers, 1888-1986 (Bulk: 1927-1973)
Collection No.: C6
Extent: 12 cubic feet

Abstract: Richard Reuss was an Indiana University alumnus and professor of folklore and also a distinguished scholar of folksong revival. Collection includes photographs, books, artwork, clippings, song books and sheets, correspondence, interview transcripts, notes, teaching materials, and publications.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Advance notice is required.

Acquisition Information:

Accessions 9319-9332.

Usage Restrictions:

Copyright interests for this collection have not been transferred to the Trustees of Indiana University. For more information, contact the Indiana University Archivist.

Preferred Citation:

[Item], Richard A. Reuss papers, Collection C6, Indiana University Archives.

Processing Information:

Processed by Win Lanchester

Re-processed by Verlon L. Stone.

Completed in 2004.

Biographical Note

His rich and varied correspondence and interviews with so many scholars and performers of the period provide a vantage point for peering into the political and intellectual currents and disputes that surrounded folklore and folksong scholarship from the 1960s until his death in 1986.

Richard A. Reuss was born May 24, 1940 in New York City. He received a B.A. in history from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1962, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1965 and 1971 respectively. Reuss died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on August 17, 1986 at the age of 46 due to complications from respiratory disease.

In 1976 Reuss spent the summer and fall as visiting Assistant Professor of Folklore at Indiana University in what turned out to be his final university teaching position. Prior to IU, the bulk of Reuss' teaching career was spent in Michigan, first at Wayne State University in Detroit where he taught folklore in the Anthropology Department from 1968 to 1974, and later at the University of Michigan, part time, in 1974. Before this, Reuss taught at the University of California in Los Angeles in the fall of 1967.

Following several unsuccessful attempts to publish his 1971 dissertation, "American Folklore and Leftwing Politics: 1927 1957," Reuss dropped "efforts to see his dissertation into print, a decision which may have cost him his academic folklore appointment and eventually led him out of the field of folklore into counseling" (David D. Dunaway in Songs About Work, 1993, p. 7). Starting in 1977, Reuss worked in the financial aid department at the University of Michigan. In 1981 Reuss completed a Masters of Social Work at Michigan. He spent the remainder of his professional life working at a Detroit community mental health clinic.

Reuss's research interests fell largely into three, sometimes overlapping, areas: the American left's use of folk music (especially between 1927 and 1957), Woody Guthrie, and the "popular folksong revival." In pursuing these interests Reuss gathered a large collection of ephemeral publications relating to the folksong revival, clippings from the Daily Worker, New Masses, and other left leaning press publications. He interviewed and corresponded with folksong composers, folklore scholars, acquaintances and relatives of Woody Guthrie, and other folk song performers and personalities.

Other activities Reuss pursued at various periods in his life include work as Editorial Assistant for the Journal of the Folklore Institute (Indiana University), 1964 and 1966, and work as a volunteer reorganizing the People's Songs Library at Sing Out! magazine in the summer of 1965. Reuss received a research grant from the Guthrie Children's Trust Fund in 1966 1967, and was President of the Michigan chapter of the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease from 1971 to 1973. Reuss also served as chairman of the American Folklore Society History Committee from 1968 to 1974 and is well-regarded for his contributions to the historiography of the field of folklore.

In 2000, Reuss's dissertation, based on many of the collection's materials, was published posthumously by Scarecrow Press as American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics, 1927-1957. He never completed his planned biography of Woody Guthrie, although his published works include A Woody Guthrie Bibliography: 1912-1967 (New York: Guthrie Children's Trust Fund), 1968, and "Songs of American Labor, Industrialization and the Urban Work Experience: a Discography." Reuss also published a number of articles and reviews including the 1970 "Woody Guthrie and His Folk Tradition" in Journal of American Folklore 83.

Collection Scope and Content Note

This collection contains material accumulated by Richard A. Reuss as a result of his research and professional activities in folklore and folksong. These activities occupied Reuss up to his death in 1986, but relate most particularly to the period beginning with Reuss's enrollment at Indiana University as a graduate student in 1962 and ending with his visiting professorship in 1976. Material in the collection dates from 1888 through 1986 with the bulk falling between 1927 and 1973.

The collection is organized into five series: Correspondence, Teaching, Major research projects, General research and activities, and Collected publications. Materials include notebooks, photographs, two phonograph records, books, catalogs and artwork. The most common materials, however, are clippings, magazines, newsletters, song books, song sheets, programs, bibliographies, discographies, correspondence, interview transcripts, notes, lectures, and articles. Note that although most of the correspondence and the folklore publications are found in their respective series, some correspondence and folklore publications materials may also be found in the two research materials series: Major research projects and General research and activities. Also note that additional materials on some topics contained within the Major research projects series may be found in other series (where it is not tied to one specific major project).

While the strict provenance of the collection is unknown and earlier attempts at organization and arrangement are undocumented, the current organization seems to follow the original order of Reuss's own filing system, especially in retaining the original folder titles. As a result, the key words by which folders are alphabetized do not appear consistently at the beginning of the folder label.

The Correspondence series contains materials dating from 1957 to 1986 with the bulk falling between 1964 and 1973. Arrangement is alphabetical by last name of the correspondent, with chronological arrangement within folders. Some miscellaneous and unsorted correspondence materials are included at the end of the series.

Notable correspondents include 1948 Presidential candidate Henry Wallace, Lee Hays, Alan Lomax, Walter Lowenfels, Bess Hawes, Bill Clifton, and Maxine Crissman. Others well-represented include Irwin Silber, Pete Seeger, Ellen Stekert, and Jeff Guthrie, a relative of Woody Guthrie's. There is also extensive correspondence with Gordon Friesen, husband of Almanac Singer Sis Cunningham, as well as with Gladys Gordon and Sylvia Grider concerning their memories of and/or research on Woody Guthrie.

Colleagues and publishers with whom Reuss frequently corresponded include Archie Green, R. Serge Denisoff, Israel Young, Judy McCulloh, and Harold Levanthal.

Folders in the Teaching series are arranged into six sub-series. The first five sub-series are arranged by course title: American Folklore, Ballad and Folksong, Introduction to Folklore, Oral Tradition and Written History, and Urban Folklore. A few files which are not specific to any individual course are listed in the sub-series, Teaching Folklore Materials. Arrangement within course titles is generally alphabetical, although some handouts and introductory material precede the alphabetical listings. Materials contained in this series are predominantly lecture notes and class handouts (including syllabi, exams, and bibliographies.)

Folders within the Major research projects series are further organized into three sub-series: Woody Guthrie, Folksong Revival, and Folksong and the Left Wing. Arrangement within each sub-series is largely alphabetical.

The Woody Guthrie sub-series ranges from 1894 to 1983 with the years 1938 1970 particularly well represented. Materials include interviews, drafts and prospectuses, notes, and bibliography about Woody Guthrie. In addition there are transcriptions and photocopies of letters, songs, and writings by Guthrie. Arrangement of folders within this sub-series generally uses the following order: items originating from Guthrie, information about Guthrie collected by Reuss, works on Guthrie produced by Reuss.

The Folksong Revival sub-series runs from 1938 to 1984, most dated within 1960 1970. There are articles on concerts and performers, reviews, interviews, inventories, bibliography, and concert notes. The general arrangement within sub-series is published clippings, followed by unpublished interviews, bibliographic lists, and lastly, liner and concert notes. Two folders SPOTFR (which contains various letters and financial statements, mostly from folk performers and promoters) and Term Papers Related to The Folksong Revival do not fit these categories.

The Folksong and the Left Wing sub-series contains items dating from 1888 1985, the bulk of which runs from 1927 1971. It contains a synopsis and other materials relating to an anthology project. The bulk of the material consists of interviews, notes, synopses, and articles connected with Reuss's graduate thesis. Subjects covered include the Almanac Singers, and Marxism and Folksong. Thesis material follows the anthology material and is arranged, for the most part, according to a list of folder titles developed by Reuss.

Folders in the General research and activities series contain interviews, clippings, songs, bibliographies, notes, letters, and offprints. Material dates from 1899 to 1985 with the bulk running from 1928 1980. Items are arranged alphabetically by subject. A more general treatment of the Almanac Singers than that found in the Major research projects series is located here. American Folklore Society history committee materials, files on a number of singers, activists, and academics (in particular Charles and Pete Seeger, as well as Israel Young), in addition to a sizable collection of song sheets photocopied from the People's Songs Library (PSL) are included here.

PSL songsheets occasionally include brief comments handwritten by the songwriter. There are PSL songsheets from the Almanac Singers, Huddie Ledbetter, Ella May Wiggins, Sis Cunningham, Malvina Reynolds, Aunt Molly Jackson, and Bob Dylan among others. Original correspondence and interviews of B. A. Botkin, Irwin Silber, Charles Seeger, and Israel Young, as well as copies of correspondence belonging to the Almanac Singers, Sing Out!, and Margaret Larkin can also be found in this series.

Newsletters, songbooks, and other folk related publications make up two sub-series of the Collected publications series. Items range in date from 1907 to 1985, with the bulk falling between 1962 and 1972. The first sub-series, Publications by title is arranged alphabetically by publication title. The second sub-series, Publications by subject is arranged alphabetically by subject and contains publications filed together according to general subject rather than by individual title, and Includes a miscellaneous publications folder at the end.

In addition the series includes newsletters from the American Folklore Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and numerous regional folksong and folklore organizations. Among the more extensive collections of serials are Broadside and the University of Michigan's Folklore Society Newsletter. Other serials include Recorded Sound and Tradition from Great Britain, The John Edwards Memorial Foundation Newsletter, West Virginia Folklore, Mountain Life and Work, and Songmakers' Almanac.

Single works include H. G. Sear's Talking of Music, and Songs for the Sixties, both published by the Workers' Music Association. Music and dance publications by the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Bob Dylan's "Talking Folklore Center," published by Israel Young's Folklore Center, The Hoadl'y Songbook (a mimeographed collection of songs in defense of an Indiana University organization), and songbooks from the IWW or AFL CIO are among the numerous other titles in this series.

Arrangement

Papers organized into fives series: Correspondence; Teaching; Major research projects; General research and activities; and Collected publications.

Controlled Access Terms

Contents List

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