The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore ( ISBN 0195530578) is a book in the series of Oxford Companions published by Oxford University Press, its first edition dated 1993. It contains an alphabetically arranged set of articles on Australian subjects: notable persons and topics of general interest, ranging in length from 100 to 2,000 words. It has around 380 pages and is bound uniformly with The Oxford Companion to English Literature but with a slightly smaller page size than The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature and others in the series.
It was edited by Gwenda Beed Davey (born 1932) [1] and Graham Seal (born 1950). [2] Davey taught folklore studies at several Victorian universities and was a co-founder, with June Factor, of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection, housed at the University of Melbourne. Seal taught Australian Studies at Curtin University, Perth, and is the author of several books on Australian folklore.
It is not indexed. Articles are not credited to their authors, but major contributors are listed in the Preface.
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Frankland Wilmot Davey, FRSC is a Canadian poet and scholar.
Thomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
Michael Wilding is a British-born writer and academic who has spent most of his career at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. He is known for his work as a novelist, literary scholar, critic, and editor. Since 2002 he has been Emeritus Professor in English and Australian Literature at the University of Sydney.
Jan Harold Brunvand is a retired American folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah.
Jack David Zipes is a professor emeritus of German, comparative literature, and cultural studies, who has published and lectured on German literature, critical theory, German Jewish culture, children's literature, and folklore. In the latter part of his career he translated two major editions of the tales of the Brothers Grimm and focused on fairy tales, their evolution, and their social and political role in civilizing processes.
Dorothy Coade Hewett was an Australian playwright, poet and author, and a romantic feminist icon. In writing and in her life, Hewett was an experimenter. As her circumstances and beliefs changed, she progressed through different literary styles: modernism, socialist realism, expressionism and avant garde. She was a member of the Australian Communist Party in the 1950s and 1960s, which informed her work during that period.
Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson was an English folklorist. She was a scholar at the University of Cambridge and The Folklore Society, and specialized in the study of Celtic and Germanic religion and folklore.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Dame Alexandra Margaret Martin Hasluck, Lady Hasluck,, also known as Alix Hasluck, was an Australian author and social historian. She published a number of works on the history of Western Australia. She was the wife of Sir Paul Hasluck, Governor-General of Australia.
Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, and Peter Mason Opie were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and play, in studies such as The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). They were also noted anthologists, assembled large collections of children's literature, toys, and games and were regarded as world-famous authorities on children's lore and customs.
Geoffrey 'Geppie' Piers Henry Dutton AO was an Australian author and historian.
Robert Anthony Welch was an Irish author and scholar.
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, poetry, and including both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, also known as orature much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
Warren John Fahey AM is an Australian folklore collector, cultural historian, author, actor, broadcaster, record and concert producer, visual artist, songwriter, and performer of Australian traditional and related historical music. He is the founder of Folkways Music (1973), Larrikin Records (1974) and a folk music ensemble, the Larrikins (1975).
A cubby-hole, cubby-house or cubby is a small play house, or play area, for children. This may be constructed by the children themselves and used as a place of play. Children may have a small shed, play-house or tent which they use as a cubby-house. Children might build their own in various places in the house or garden, or have a pre-fabricated cubby. An Australian fictional treatment of the quest for the perfect cubby can be found in Ursula Dubosarsky's The Cubby House, illustrated by Mitch Vane.
George Thomas Tanselle is an American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1978 to 2006.
Archer Taylor was one of America's "foremost specialists in American and European folklore", with a special interest in cultural history, literature, proverbs, riddles and bibliography.
Thomas Edward Cheney (1901–1993) was an American folklorist who made contributions to the field of Mormon folklore. As one of the first Mormon folklorists, he collected folk songs in Utah and Idaho and authored books and articles on Utah, Idaho, and Mormon folklore. He served as president of the Folklore Society of Utah from 1963 to 1964. Cheney also compiled songs for the American Folklore Society, which were published in 1968. Along with books on Mormon Folklore, Cheney wrote a book about J. Golden Kimball, which was considered controversial. He was also a professor of English at Brigham Young University (BYU) and taught courses in English Romantic literature, ballads, and Mormon folklore.
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature is a reference work first published in 1984, with its most recent edition in 2015. The Oxford Companions is a book series providing general knowledge within a specific area, in this case, children's literature.