Albert Bates Lord (15 September 1912 – 29 July 1991) was a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

who carried on Milman Parry's research on

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

after Parry's death.

Early life

Lord was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. He graduated from

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

in 1930 and attended

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

College, where he received an A.B. in

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

in 1934 and a Ph.D. in

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

in 1949.

Career

Lord became a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Harvard in 1950. He was later promoted as a full professor there in Classics. He also founded Harvard's Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology, and chaired the college's Department of Folklore and Mythology until his retirement in 1983. Lord authored the book '' The Singer of Tales'', first published in 1960. It was reissued in a 40th anniversary edition, with an audio compact disc to aid in the understanding of the recorded renditions discussed in the text. His wife Mary Louise Lord completed and edited his manuscript of a posthumous sequel ''The Singer Resumes the Tale'' (published 1995) which further supports and extends Lord's initial conclusions. Lord demonstrated the ways in which various great ancient

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

s from Europe and Asia were heirs to a tradition not only of oral performance, but of oral ''composition''. He argued strongly for a complete divide between the non-literate authors of the

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

ic epics and the scribes who later wrote them down. Lord studied and made field recordings of South-Slavic heroic epics sung to the

gusle The gusle () or lahuta (; related to English ''lute'') is a bowed single- stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinarides region of Southeastern Europe (in the Balkans). The instrument is always accompanie ...

, most notable of poets he worked with was Avdo Međedović. He studied not only Homeric epics, but also ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'', ''

Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...

'', and others. Across these many story traditions he found strong commonalities concerning the oral composition of traditional

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

Personal life

His wife, Mary Louise Lord née Carlson, taught classics at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

; they had two children. Lord died in July 1991 at

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

Awards and distinctions

*1940 - Junior Fellow - Harvard Society of Fellows *1949 - Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship *1956 - Fellow - American Academy of Arts and Sciences *1959 - Honorary Curator - Milman Parry Collection -

Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books, is the centerpiece of the Harvard Library system. It honors 1907 Harvard College graduate and book collector Harry Elkins Widener, and was built by his mother Eleanor Elki ...

- Harvard College *1969 - Fellow - American Folklore Society *1972 - Becomes the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature - Harvard University *1988 - Recipient of the Yugoslav Star - Yugoslav Consulate *1990 - Awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Novi Sad

Bibliography

By Lord

* Albert B. Lord, Bela Bartok, ''Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs'' (New York, 1951) * Albert B. Lord, ''Serbo-Croatian Heroic Songs'', vols. 1 & 2 (Cambridge & Belgrade, 1953–4), vols. 3 & 4, with David E. Bynum (1975) * Albert B. Lord, ''Beginning Serbocroatian'' (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1958) * Albert B. Lord, '' The Singer of Tales'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1960) * Albert B. Lord, ''Umbundu: Folk Tales from Angola'' (Boston, 1962) * Albert B. Lord, David E. Bynum, ''Beginning Bulgarian'' (The Hague, 1962) * Albert B. Lord, ''A Bulgarian Literary Reader'' (Cambridge, 1962) * Albert B. Lord, ''The Wedding of Smailagic Meho'' (Cambridge, 1974) * Albert B. Lord, Bela Bartók, ed. Benjamin Suchoff, ''Yugoslav Folk Music'' (Albany, NY, 1978) * Albert B. Lord, ''Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs and Instrumental Pieces from the Milman Parry Collection'' (Albany, NY, 1978) * Albert B. Lord, ed. John Miles Foley ''Festschrift: Oral Traditional Literature: A Festschrift for Albert Bates Lord'', (Columbus, OH, 1981) * Albert B. Lord,
Perspectives on Recent Work on the Oral Traditional Formula
" in ''Oral Tradition'', vol. 1, no. 3 (1986), pp. 467–503 * Albert B. Lord,
Characteristics of Orality
" in ''A Festschrift for Walter J. Ong, S.J.'', a special issue of ''Oral Tradition'', vol. 2, no. 1 (1987), pp. 54–72 * Albert B. Lord
''Epic Singers and Oral Tradition''
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1991) * Albert B. Lord, "Oral Composition and 'Oral Residue' in the Middle Ages", in ''Oral Tradition in the Middle Ages'', ed. W. F. H. Nicolaisen (Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995), pp. 7–29

On Lord

* John Miles Foley, "Albert Bates Lord (1912-1991): An Obituary," in ''Journal of American Folklore'' 105 (1992), pp. 57–65. *

" New York Times, August 3, 1991. * Morgan E. Grey, Mary Louise Lord, and John Miles Foley,
A Bibliography of Publications by Albert Bates Lord
" in ''Oral Tradition'', vol. 25, no. 2 (2010), pp. 497–504.

References

External links

*
Albert and Mary Louise Lord Collection
at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Albert 1912 births 1991 deaths American folklorists Epic poetry collectors Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Scholars of epic poetry