J. FRANK DOBIE - INSCRIBED PAMPHLET SIGNED - HFSID 168262

JAMES FRANK DOBIE
"A Christmas Remembrance" pamphlet signed by Texan folklorist and author James Frank Dobie. Contains his article Charm in Mexican Folktales, which makes the interesting claim that "A great deal of folklore is inane, banal, stupid, dull, and tedious".
Insribed pamphlet signed "To Ralph G Neman/Frank Dobie" on first page. 12 pages including covers, 6x9, bound in green cardstock covers with 2 staples. Titled on cover: "A/Christmas/Remembrance/Bertha and Frank Dobie/1951". Contains Dobie's article Charm in Mexican Folktales, reprintedfrom Texas Folklore Society Publication No. 24, The Healer of Los Olmos and Other Mexican Lore, Dallas, Texas, 1951. The first paragraph is a rather interesting statement from a folklorist, in part: "A great deal of folklore is inane, banal, stupid, dull, and tedious. Nobody should feel under compulsion to 'preserve it for posterity.' Indeed, the only possible way for posterity to survive is to ignore most of what our posterity-conscious age is hoarding for it." Texan author and folklorist Dobie (1888-1964) wrote stories about cowboys the figures and natural history of Texas and helped to define the popular image of his native state. His books include A Vaquero of the Brush Country (1929), about the cowboy John Young, who fought against barbed wire; Coronado's Children (1930), a collection of folklore about lost mines and treasure; and The Longhorns (1941), a book about the Texas Longhorn cattle industry of the 19th century. Dobie also wrote a Sunday newspaper column from 1939 until his death, where he criticized everything from state politics and professional teachers (he was a member of the faculty from University of Texas, Austin from 1921 to 1922 and 1925 to 1944 and taught in Europe during and after World War II) to bragging Texans, restraints on liberty and the mechanized world's erosion of the human spirit. Lightly toned and creased. Staples are tarnished. Otherwise in fine condition.