Jan Harold Brunvand

Brunvand was born on March 23, 1933, in Cadillac, Michigan, to Norwegian immigrants He and his two siblings, Tor and Richard, Brunvand graduated from J. W. Sexton High School in Lansing in 1951. From high school, Brunvand attended Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, where, in 1955, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. While at Michigan State, he attended a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant upon graduation. Brunvand went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in English from the same university in 1957. He briefly served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth and was discharged with the rank of 1st Lieutenant. ==Academic career==

While attending Michigan State, Brunvand met Richard Dorson, He started publishing in academic publications during this period, notably a paper on Norwegian-American folklore in the archives of Indiana University and one about the Norwegian folk hero Askeladden. In 1957, Brunvand returned to the United States as a graduate student at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. During this time, he met Archer Taylor, who, as a visiting professor, taught a course on proverbs and riddles. This course, according to Brunvand, "changed his life." Proverbs became one of Brunvand's favorite topics to study and discuss. highlighted his interest in the structure, morphology and typology of the folktale. Brunvand taught at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, from 1961 to 1965. before moving with his wife and four children to the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, where he remained a professor until his retirement in 1996. He had also served as Book Review Editor for the Journal of American Folklore, He also won a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Humanities (Folklore and Popular Culture) that same year. Throughout the next decade, Brunvand focused his research on Romanian folklore, with a particular interest in Romanian house decoration. He returned to Romania in 1973-74 and again in 1981, receiving grants from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) to continue his studies. Brunvand received an Honorable Mention for this book in a 1969 Chicago Folklore Prize competition. The Chicago Folklore Prize is "supported by an endowment established by the International Folklore Association and is awarded annually by the University of Chicago for an important contribution to the study of folklore." Brunvand's A Guide for Collectors of Folklore in Utah was published by Utah Publications in the American West in 1971. In the years 1973 to 1976, Brunvand, again, took on the role of associate editor for the Journal of American Folklore. The book, intended for undergraduate folklore students, was a research tool with a bibliographic guide and tips for researching term papers. published by W.W. Norton and Company in 1979, American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, published by Garland in 1996. =="Mr. Urban Legend"==

While teaching folklore at the University of Utah, Brunvand noticed a disconnect with his students and their views toward folklore. "They always seemed to think that folklore belonged to somebody else, usually in the past, that was something quaint and outdated." He began asking his students to think about and discuss stories from their own lives. These stories helped form the basis of a collection which Brunvand later included in several popular books on the topic of urban legends. helped to popularize the topic for a student audience. Urban legends, Brunvand explains, are "kissing cousins of myths, fairy tales and rumors. Legends differ from rumors because the legends are stories, with a plot. And unlike myths and fairy tales, they are supposed to be current and true, events rooted in everyday reality that at least could happen." but are "weird whoppers we tell one another, believing them to be factual." The Big Book of Urban Legends (which was formatted as a comic book), The Mexican Pet: More "New" Urban Legends, Curses! Broiled Again!, The Baby Train: And Other Lusty Urban Legends, Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends, and The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story!. He made several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and, in 1987, began a twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column called Urban Legends. the title was later added to book jackets and other publicity. A Harvard Lampoon publication, Mediagate, parodied urban legend books with this fake publisher's notice: "Bookman Publishing's Catalog for Fall '87: The Embarrassing Fart and More New Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand. Yet another set of rumors, tall tales, and fourth-hand hearsay compiled by the author of The Vanishing Hitchhiker. Includes more recent urban legends such as the Senile President, the Adulterous Evangelist, and the Smelly Gym Sock in the Big Mac. 233 pages hardbound. $34.95 (Harvard 1988: 229)." ==Post-retirement career==

Brunvand retired from the University of Utah in 1996, but continued doing some research and writing as professor emeritus of English. Once in a while, Brunvand's hobbies and academic interests intersect, notably with an article in The American Fly Fisher debunking a fake quotation by Thoreau. He writes a series of columns on Seniors Skiing.com. Brunvand was a guest on National Public Radio's All Things Considered in September 1999. He spoke to Noah Adams about his book Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends. His Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, illustrated by Randy Hickman, was published by ABC-CLIO in 2001. He gave the keynote address at the 2003 meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society. He was a speaker at the World Skeptics Congress in Italy in 2004. Brunvand's book Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The Book of Scary Urban Legends was published in 2004 by W.W. Norton and Company. ==Personal==

In 2003, Brunvand entered the Trout Bum Tournament sponsored by Fly Rod and Reel. He participated in the Solo-Angler category. Known during the tournament as the Vanishing Fly Fisher (a nod to his book, The Vanishing Hitchhiker), Brunvand spent 10 days alone fishing some of his favorite spots in Utah: Mammoth Creek, Gooseberry Creek, Price River, and Antimony River (where he "fell twice and bashed his knee, though the injury wasn't anything a cold towel and a cold beer wouldn't fix"). "Day 10," Jim Reilly wrote in an article describing the competition," was the last we heard from Jan. We assume he made it home, but maybe he...vanished." His favorite hobbies are fly fishing and skiing. He and his wife, Judith, continue to reside in Salt Lake City, Utah. ==Popular books about urban legends==

The Vanishing Hitchhiker The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings is a book intended to introduce the idea of urban legends to the general public. Included in the book are such chilling and humorous stories "The Solid Cement Cadillac," As with Heard About the Solid Cement Cadillac or the Nude in the Camper?, Brunvand categorizes the different legends included in The Vanishing Hitchhiker into classic urban legend types. Like in his book, The Vanishing Hitchhiker, Brunvand provided the reader with a survey of urban legends, stories such as "The Choking Doberman," "The Poison Dress," and "The Death of Little Mikey." Though Robert D. Bethke called The Choking Doberman "the kind of work one immediately wants to share with friends," "Cabbage Patch Kids' death certificates," "The Green Stamps." Many of the stories have been disseminated through print and broadcast media. Brunvand wrote in a 2003 article, "Nowadays it would be naive to ask for mere press releases and print articles when most people turn to websites and on-line databases for information." He recognized that urban legend reference sites, like Snopes.com provide readers with far more timely examples and current information than he could keep up with in his books. ==Academic books on American folklore==

The Study of American Folklore. An Introduction The Study of American Folklore. An Introduction is a book intended for students of folklore with a particular emphasis on American Folklore as transmitted in the English language. To some, like reviewer Elliott Oring, the classification system used by Brunvand made The Study of American Folklore more of an "index" of American folklore rather than a "study" of it. Reviewer Kenneth Laine Ketner criticized the book for its failure to make explicit the background theory used to evaluate the works and classification system included in the book, contradictions in detail and narrative, its authoritarian tone, and its charismatic or arbitrary approach to knowledge with serious ethnocentric biases. Peter Tokofsky, in his article Introducing Folklore: A Review Essay, suggested that "the longevity and, presumably, continuing strong sales of the Brunvand text seems to confirm that introducing folklore by way of genres remains an effective and, for many, a preferred teaching tool even if it does not reflect the most current theoretical perspectives." American Folklore: An Encyclopedia American Folklore: An Encyclopedia is an illustrated volume that contains within its pages more than 500 articles covering American and Canadian folklore and folklife. Subject areas include holidays, festivals, rituals to crafts, music, dance and occupations. The book provides short bibliographies and cross-references for further research. ==Selected works==

• A Dictionary of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases from Books Published by Indiana Authors Before 1890, compiled by Jan Harold Brunvand (Indiana University Press 1961) () • The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction (W.W. Norton & Company 1968, revised 1978, 1986, 1998) () • A Guide for Collectors of Folklore in Utah (University of Utah Press 1971) • Norwegian Settlers in Alberta (Canadian Centre for Folk Cultural Studies 1974) • Folklore: A Study and Research Guide (St. Martin's Press 1976) () • Readings in American Folklore, edited by Jan Harold Brunvand (W.W. Norton & Company 1979) () • The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (W.W. Norton 1981) () • The Choking Doberman and Other "New" Urban Legends (W.W. Norton & Company 1984) () • The Mexican Pet: More "New" Urban Legends and Some Old Favorites (W.W. Norton & Company 1986) () • Curses! Broiled Again! The Hottest Urban Legends Going (W.W. Norton & Company 1989) () • The Taming of the Shrew: A Comparative Study of Oral and Literary Versions (Routledge 1991) () • The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends (W.W. Norton & Company 1993) () • The Big Book of Urban Legends (Paradox Press 1994) () • American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jan Harold Brunvand (Taylor & Francis 1996) () • Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends (W.W. Norton & Company 1999, revised 2001) () • The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story (University of Illinois Press 2000) () • Encyclopedia of Urban Legends (ABC-CLIO, Inc. 2001) () • Casa Frumoasa: The House Beautiful in Rural Romania (Columbia University Press 2003) () • Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The book of scary Urban Legends (W.W. Norton & Company 2004) () ==References==