Pound, Louise 1872-1958

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Pound, Louise 1872-1958

PERSONAL:

Born June 30, 1872, in Lincoln, NE; died June 27, 1958, in Lincoln, NE; daughter of Stephen and Laura Pound. Education: University of Nebraska, B.A., 1892, diploma in piano, 1892, M.A., 1895; University of Heidelberg, D.Phil., 1900.

CAREER:

Educator, folklorist, and linguist. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, instructor, 1897-99, adjunct professor, 1900-06, assistant professor, 1906-12, professor of English, 1912-45, became professor emeritus. Visiting professor at University of California, Yale University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Stanford University. Staff member of the Women's Committee of the State Council of Defense during World War I; acting state head of the National League for Women's Services, 1918; chairman of Overseas Relief Activities.

MEMBER:

International Phonetic Association, National Council of English Teachers (director, 1916-19; treasurer, 1917), Modern Language Association of America (vice president, 1916; member of executive council, 1921-23 and 1925; president, 1955), American Folklore Society (member of national council, 1925-27; president, 1928), American Association of University Professors (member of national council, 1929-32), American Dialect Society (vice-president, 1929-37; president, 1938-44), Linguistic Society of America (charter member; vice-president, 1939), American Society of University Women, Medieval Academy of America, Humanistic Research Association (charter member), Spelling Reform Association (president, 1927-31), Nebraska Academy of Science.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Elected first woman president of the Modern Language Association of America, 1955; Smith College, L.H.D., 1928; Kiwanis Distinguished Service Medal, 1947; Distinguished Service Medal, University of Nebraska Alumni Association, 1948; inducted into University of Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame, 2006.

WRITINGS:

EDITOR

(And author of introduction) Alfred Tennyson, Tennyson's Lancelot and Elaine, American School Supply (Lincoln, NE), 1905.

(And author of introduction) William Goldsmith, Goldsmith's The Deserted Village, Ginn (Boston, MA), 1907, revised edition, 1925.

Collegiate Basket Ball Rules for Women, University Publishing Co. (Lincoln, NE), 1908.

William Shakespeare, Henry the Sixth, Part One, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1911.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1920.

American Ballads and Songs, Scribner (New York, NY), 1922, reprinted, 1972.

Homer, The Iliad, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1930.

James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, a Narrative of 1757, Harlow Publishing (Oklahoma City, OK), 1931.

Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, Democratic Visions, and Other Prose, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1935.

OTHER

The Comparison of Adjectives in English in the Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Century, C. Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1901.

The Periods of English Literature: Outlines of the History of English Literature with Reading and Reference Lists, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1910.

Blends: Their Relation to English Word Formation, C. Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1914, Swets & Zeitlinger (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1967.

Folk-Songs of Nebraska and the Central West: A Syllabus, (Lincoln, NE), 1915.

Poetic Origins and the Ballad, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1921, reprinted, Russell & Russell (New York, NY), 1962.

(With others) Ideas and Models, Holt (New York, NY), 1935.

(With Milton Ellis and George W. Spohn) A College Book of American Literature, American Book (New York, NY), 1939.

Selected Writings of Louise Pound, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1949, reprinted, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1971.

Nebraska Folklore, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1959, revised edition with introduction by Roger Welsch, 2006.

Also author of Notes on Certain Negative Verb Contractions in the Present and On Indefinite Composites and Word-Coinage. Founder and senior editor of American Speech, 1925-33; advisory editor of New England Quarterly, 1928; contributor to Cambridge History of American Literature, Encyclopedia Britannica, American Literature, Southern Folklore Quarterly, College English, School and Society, Saturday Review of Literature, and American Mercury.

SIDELIGHTS:

Louise Pound was a renowned folklorist, literary scholar, and professor of English at the University of Nebraska for more than fifty years. Born in 1872, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Pound excelled at academics, earning her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Nebraska and her doctorate from Heidelberg University in Germany. She began teaching at the University of Nebraska in 1897 and became a full professor in 1912. She retired in 1945, having taught contemporary English, American literature, and comparative literature. During her tenure, Pound held offices in numerous professional organizations, and in 1955 she was named the first female president of the Modern Language Association of America. She was also an accomplished athlete, winning titles in tennis, golf, and cycling, and she became the first woman inducted into the University of Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame.

Pound wrote widely during her lifetime, publishing a number of academic works. In the 1921 work Poetic Origins and the Ballad, she contends that folksongs and ballads were not the result of communal authorship, instead finding "that among the most primitive peoples we find individual authorship of songs," observed Albert H. Tolman in Modern Language Notes. The author's "sharp challenge of widely accepted views is supported by a wealth of definite evidence and able reasoning that cannot be ignored," Tolman stated. Selected Writings of Louise Pound, first published in 1949, contains articles from her folklore, language, and literary studies. "On almost any page that one opens to in Selected Writings, wrote Western Folklore critic B.A. Botkin, "one is apt to come upon a brilliant, challenging statement proving the interdependence of folklore and dialect, oral and written tradition, the unlettered and the lettered classes, life and literature, tradition and change, survivals and inventions, the conservative and creative aspects of lore and language."

First published in 1959 and reprinted in 2006, Nebraska Folklore collects sixteen essays published in Pound's journals between 1913 and 1957. According to Patricia Casey Sutcliffe, writing in the Journal of Folklore Literature, the work "is valuable because it testifies to her lasting significance as a pioneer in folklore studies and a trailblazing woman and academic worthy of continued admiration." Reviewing the collection in the Journal of American Folklore, Margaret Hagler praised the author's attention to Nebraskan legends and folk customs, such as rain making, hoaxes, pioneers, and lover's leaps, stating, "The range and depth of the material testifies to Louise Pound's abid- ding interest in her native state." According to Sutcliffe, Nebraska Folklore "has historical value for the folklorist as a celebration of Louise Pound's life and accomplishments, and entertainment value for all readers, who will enjoy not only the old Nebraskan legends, personalities, customs, and amusing anecdotes preserved in its pages but also Pound's straightforward and logical prose."