Max Franklin Hunter (July 2, 1921November 6, 1999) was an American

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

who, while working as a travelling salesman, compiled an archive of nearly 1,600

folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

from the

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant por ...

region of the southern United States between 1956 and 1976.

Life and career

Hunter was born on July 2, 1921, to a family with deep roots in the

. He grew up in

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estima ...

, attending

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christianity, Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe ...

and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

church services and singing with his family. He married Virginia Mercer in 1939 and started working for her father as a refrigerator

salesman Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in ...

. In 1952, he began working for the John Rhodes Refrigeration Supply Company, traveling on a 150-mile circuit through the Ozarks. During his travels, he began using a

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

to record songs from people he met. At the

Ozark Folk Festival The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant p ...

circa 1956, he met folklorists

Vance Randolph Vance Randolph (February 23, 1892 – November 1, 1980) was a folklorist who studied the folklore of the Ozarks in particular. He wrote a number of books on the Ozarks, as well as '' Little Blue Books'' and juvenile fiction. Early life Randolph ...

and Mary Celestia Parler, who saw his potential as a collector and shared some basic archiving skills. Over his career, he recorded hundreds of singers, including Almeda Riddle,

Ollie Gilbert Ollie Gilbert (1892–1980) was a folk musician from the Ozarks in Arkansas. She sometimes performed as "Auntie Ollie". Max Hunter recorded her singing more than 300 folk songs. She was from the Mountain View area. In 1964, she and Jimmie Drift ...

, Fred High,

May Kennedy McCord May Anderson Kennedy McCord (December 1, 1880 – February 21, 1979) was an American newspaper columnist and radio personality based in Missouri, known as "Queen of the Hillbillies" and "First Lady of the Ozarks". Her writings and programs often ...

, Raymond Sanders, Jimmy "Driftwood" Morris, and others who were active in the

American folk music revival The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-Benn ...

movement. He sometimes went to great lengths to convince others to let him record them, such as by helping them out with chores, which at one point included delivering

moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...

. He also recorded by some estimates more than 14 hours of

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

s and 1,100

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

s. Hunter was the last of the major Ozark ballad collectors, and defied the conventional wisdom of archivists at the time, who thought that such oral traditions had already been fully documented. His archival philosophy was to make absolutely no changes to the songs he collected, even to correct obvious errors. In 1972, he gave his audio tapes to the Springfield-Greene County Library, ignoring the advice of friends who urged him to give them to an academic institution where he worried the songs would get buried. From 1998 to 2001, the archive was

digitize DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer- ...

d by

Missouri State University Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

. Many of his recordings are now on file at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

and other institutions. Although he quit smoking later in his life, he died of

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the a ...

on November 6, 1999, at the age of 78.

References

External links

Max Hunter Folk Song Collection at Missouri State University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Max American folk-song collectors People from Springfield, Missouri 1921 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers

Life and career

See also

References

External links