Original Handwritten & Typescript Folklore Archive (1925)

Collected by author and folklorist Francesca Claremont

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Hardback, quarter cloth notebook. 32 × 20cm, handwritten pagination, please see below.

Francesca Claremont (c1895–1971) was an author, early Montessori teacher, and a collector of folklore. She married Claude Claremont, one of the earliest British disciples of Maria Montessori. She wrote several novels and histories, some of which were heavily infused with her knowledge of folk legends, rural oral traditions, and animal folklore.

An original, highly detailed personal working notebook documenting Claremont’s folklore studies, compiled circa 1925. The notebook is approximately two-thirds full and features a manuscript index to the front pastedown.

Handwritten Section (52 pp.): Recorded on rectos only, with occasional notes in verse. Includes detailed cross-references to major 19th- and early 20th-century folklorists (such as Edward Clodd), comparative mythology, Cinderella variants, the Celtic fairy-faith, and the Calicut Song, covering British, Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian traditions.

Typescript & Paste-in Section (103 pp.): Consists of typewritten texts (typed on loose sheets pasted into the volume) interleaved with occasional manuscript notes. Contains a rich collection of transcribed folktales across Gaelic, Basque, and Russian traditions. Key noted entries include 'The Sharp Grey Sheep' (recorded from John Dewar), 'The Tale of the Hoodie' (from Ann Macgilvray, Islay, April 1859), 'Nighean Rìgh Fo Thuinn' (The Daughter Under the Waves), 'The Three Copecks', and 'The Baba Yaga'.

The vast majority of the text is in English, with occasional passages in French. A few additional typescript scraps remain loosely inserted at the end. An exceptional, one-of-a-kind research archive from a dedicated 20th-century folklorist.

Condition

Good condition. Boards show light marking and shelfwear; cloth spine is creased from active reference as expected for a working journal. Internal contents remain clean, firmly bound, and in very good order throughout.

Further images available on request.

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