The Dorothy Scarborough papers contain materials created, collected, and used by Emily Dorothy Scarborough during her career as an author, folklorist, and professor of English at Baylor University and Columbia University. The materials within the collection include personal correspondence, typescript drafts and notes of her written works, folklore research, and teaching and lecture materials. The Scarborough papers offer insight to any researcher interested in her literary process, southern American literature, and early 20th century folklore studies and methodology.
Emily Dorothy Scarborough was born to John and Mary Scarborough on 1873 January 27 in Mount Carmel, Texas. The couple’s eldest child, Ellison Bledsoe, died in infancy, and her brother George attended University of Texas Law School and later become a playwright. Her older sister Martha Douglas married George W. McDaniel, a noted pastor and President of the Baptism National Convention, a lifelong friend and correspondent of Scarborough. At an early age, the family moved to Sweetwater due to her mother's need for a drier climate, and finally settled in Waco in 1887.
Dorothy, or “Dottie” as she was known to her friends and family, graduated from Baylor University with a BA and MA in English in 1896 and 1899, respectively. She returned to Baylor as a faculty member in 1905 as an instructor of English. Beginning in 1906, she began work on her PhD in Literature during breaks from Baylor at the University of Chicago. She attended the University of Oxford from 1910-11, despite the institution not granting degrees to women at that time. Upon her return from Oxford, she continued to teach English at Baylor and study in Chicago until she moved to New York in 1915, where she completed her doctoral work at Columbia University in 1917. She was hired by Columbia the following year as an instructor. She specialized in courses on creative writing, but also taught other classics including The Development of the English Novel and The History of the English Language. She was promoted to lecturer in 1919, assistant professor in 1923, and associate professor in 1931.
She published her first book, a collection of poetry titled Fugitive Verses in 1912. She subsequently published her doctoral thesis, The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction, as a monograph in 1917. Her other works include From a Southern Porch (1919), Humorous Ghost Stories (1921), In the Land of Cotton (1923), The Wind (1925), The Unfair Sex (serialized, 1925-1926), Impatient Griselda (1927), Can’t Get a Redbird (1929), The Stretch-Berry Smile (1932), and the juvenile reader The Story of Cotton (1933). She also served as the editor and compiler for the literary collection The Collected Short Stories of Today (1935, Posthumous). The Wind was initially published anonymously and was met with a measure of controversy, as it was perceived as an outsider’s criticism of West Texas, though Scarborough (raised in West Texas) later admitted to writing the novel. The novel was adapted into a motion picture of the same title in 1928.
Scarborough was an early advocate for the study of folklore, specifically folk songs. She was an early member of the Texas Folklore Society, serving as president for the organization from 1914-15, and was one of the founding members of the American Folk Song Society, as well as a longtime member of the American Folklore Society. She spent a large portion of her life collecting songs from African Americans and the Southern (Appalachian) Mountains. She published two collections of folk songs, On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs (1925) and Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains: American Folk Songs of British Ancestry (1937, Posthumous).
Dorothy Scarborough died in her home in New York City on 1935 November 7. Baylor University trustee John T. Harrington arranged her funeral in Waco, TX, where she is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
The Dorothy Scarborough papers contain materials created, collected, and used by Emily Dorothy Scarborough during her career as an author, folklorist, and professor of English at Baylor University and Columbia University. The materials within the collection include personal correspondence, typescript drafts and notes of her written works, folklore research, and teaching and lecture materials. The Scarborough papers offer insight to any researcher interested in her literary process, southern American literature, and early 20th century folklore studies and methodology.
Emily Dorothy Scarborough was born to John and Mary Scarborough on 1873 January 27 in Mount Carmel, Texas. The couple’s eldest child, Ellison Bledsoe, died in infancy, and her brother George attended University of Texas Law School and later become a playwright. Her older sister Martha Douglas married George W. McDaniel, a noted pastor and President of the Baptism National Convention, a lifelong friend and correspondent of Scarborough. At an early age, the family moved to Sweetwater due to her mother's need for a drier climate, and finally settled in Waco in 1887.
Dorothy, or “Dottie” as she was known to her friends and family, graduated from Baylor University with a BA and MA in English in 1896 and 1899, respectively. She returned to Baylor as a faculty member in 1905 as an instructor of English. Beginning in 1906, she began work on her PhD in Literature during breaks from Baylor at the University of Chicago. She attended the University of Oxford from 1910-11, despite the institution not granting degrees to women at that time. Upon her return from Oxford, she continued to teach English at Baylor and study in Chicago until she moved to New York in 1915, where she completed her doctoral work at Columbia University in 1917. She was hired by Columbia the following year as an instructor. She specialized in courses on creative writing, but also taught other classics including The Development of the English Novel and The History of the English Language. She was promoted to lecturer in 1919, assistant professor in 1923, and associate professor in 1931.
She published her first book, a collection of poetry titled Fugitive Verses in 1912. She subsequently published her doctoral thesis, The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction, as a monograph in 1917. Her other works include From a Southern Porch (1919), Humorous Ghost Stories (1921), In the Land of Cotton (1923), The Wind (1925), The Unfair Sex (serialized, 1925-1926), Impatient Griselda (1927), Can’t Get a Redbird (1929), The Stretch-Berry Smile (1932), and the juvenile reader The Story of Cotton (1933). She also served as the editor and compiler for the literary collection The Collected Short Stories of Today (1935, Posthumous). The Wind was initially published anonymously and was met with a measure of controversy, as it was perceived as an outsider’s criticism of West Texas, though Scarborough (raised in West Texas) later admitted to writing the novel. The novel was adapted into a motion picture of the same title in 1928.
Scarborough was an early advocate for the study of folklore, specifically folk songs. She was an early member of the Texas Folklore Society, serving as president for the organization from 1914-15, and was one of the founding members of the American Folk Song Society, as well as a longtime member of the American Folklore Society. She spent a large portion of her life collecting songs from African Americans and the Southern (Appalachian) Mountains. She published two collections of folk songs, On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs (1925) and Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains: American Folk Songs of British Ancestry (1937, Posthumous).
Dorothy Scarborough died in her home in New York City on 1935 November 7. Baylor University trustee John T. Harrington arranged her funeral in Waco, TX, where she is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
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The Baylor University Libraries strive to make our digital collection resources available and useful to our faculty, staff, students, alumni, researchers, and the general public. Through our Web sites, the Libraries offer broad public access to a wide range of information, including historical materials that may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials must be viewed in the context of the relevant time period. Baylor University does not endorse the views expressed in such materials.
Activity Note
This collection is considered an active collection. Items will be added periodically as they are acquired by Baylor University and processed through the Digitization and Digital Collection Preservation Services group.
The Baylor University Libraries strive to make our digital collection resources available and useful to our faculty, staff, students, alumni, researchers, and the general public. Through our Web sites, the Libraries offer broad public access to a wide range of information, including historical materials that may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials must be viewed in the context of the relevant time period. Baylor University does not endorse the views expressed in such materials.
Activity Note
This collection is considered an active collection. Items will be added periodically as they are acquired by Baylor University and processed through the Digitization and Digital Collection Preservation Services group.