In Memory of William McCarthy

A sad news has reached us. A long-term member of the ISFNR, Professor William McCarthy, of Kittery, Maine, died on Friday, June 27, 2008 in Dover, New Hampshire following a period of failing health.

William Bernard McCarthy, Professor of English, Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University, taught previously at several small Southern Mountain colleges, at Salisbury State University, and at Loyola and the University of New Orleans. He is the author of The Ballad Matrix, a study of Agnes Lyle of Kilbarchan, one of the most prolific ballad singers from the golden age of ballad singing in Scotland. The book seeks to show how a traditional singer fashions versions of ballads that are completely traditional and at the same time expressive of the times and the life experiences of the particular singer. His other books are Jack in Two Worlds, an anthology and analysis of the Jack tale in North America, and Cinderella in America, a comprehensive collection of American folk and fairy tales. His books appear on the graduate reading lists of university folklore and Scottish Studies programs in the United States, Scotland, and other countries. He published articles, essays, and even some poems in Essays in Criticism and other journals and essay collections in England and Scotland, Germany, Hungary, and the Faroe Islands, as well as in U.S. journals and collections. He was a life member of the American Folklore Society and The Modern Language Association, a member of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research, and the Society for Biblical Literature, and served on the Ballad Commission of the Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore. He is currently listed in Who’s Who in American Education and Who’s Who in America.