Williams, Cratis D. -- 1911-1985

Abstract Cratis Williams was a scholar and folklorist who was an early leader in establishing the discipline of Appalachian Studies. He was an eastern Kentucky native but spent the major part of his academic career teaching literature, speech, and drama at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. The audio and video recordings in this collection document Williams' class lectures, interviews, and public performances at Berea College during the period 1971-1985. In varying combinations,...

Abstract Cratis Dearl Williams grew up in rural Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he began to study the speech, tales and songs of mountain folk, and taught in a one-room school. He became known for his presentations of Appalachian singing styles and dialects. His first wife (m. 1937), Sylvia Graham, came from the same area and attended both Berea Academy and Morehead State Teachers College (BA, 1937). A poet and teacher, her health was fragile. In 1942 Sylvia was diagnosed with tuberculosis and...