Adams, Robert.
Introduction to Folklore
. Colombus, Ohio: Collegiate Pub. Inc., 1973. A reference and instruction book which treats the various types and functions of folklore.
Aesop.
Aesop’s Fables
trans. and ed. by Junior Library, Kingsport, Tenn.: Grosset and Dunlap, Pub., 1947. A collection of Aesop’s fables with interesting applications and lively illustrations.
Andersen, Hans Christian.
Andersen’s Fairy Tales.
New York: The Platt and Munk Co., Inc., 1929. A collection of Andersen’s tales with subtle black and white illustrations.
Bettelheim, Bruno.
The Uses of Enchantment
. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, Inc., 1977. An analysis of the meaning and importance of fairytales with a psychoanalytical approach.
Botkin, B. A.
A Treasury of American Folklore
, New York: Crown Pub., 1948. An anthology of folklore which includes songs, stories, poems, and commentary. It runs the gamut of heroes, killers, miracle men, tall talk, pranks, anecdotes and jokes.
Brunvand, Jan Harold.
The Study of American Folklore
. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. Inc., 1978. A reference work and guidebook to types of folklore found in the U.S. It suggests links between American folklore and its parent traditions.
Chesnutt, Charles.
The Conjure Woman
. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1969. Very different plantation stories which do not gloss over the tragedy of slavery but somehow retain a sense of humor.
Dundes, Alan.
Mother Wit From the Laughing Barrel.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1373. Readings in the interpretation of Afro-American folklore, its origins, folk belief, music and humor.
Dundes, Alan.
The Study of Folklore.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1965. Essays on various facets of folklore, what it is, what some of its patterns are, how it is transmitted, how it functions and how folklorists study it.
Grimm, Jakob Ludwig Karl, and Wilhelm Karl Grimm.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
. Trans. and ed. by Ralph Manheim, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1983. A modern translation of the complete folk and fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm.
Hurston, Zora Neale.
Mules and Men
. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. A collection of black folktales which Miss Hurston gathered upon her return home to Eatonville, Florida.
Walker, Alice, ed.
I Love Myself When I Am Laughing: And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive
. New York: The Feminist Press, 1979. A Zora Neale Hurston reader presenting selections from her best works, with an interesting introduction by Mary Helen Washington.