Mr. Lomax meets Professor Kittredge (John A. Lomax, folklore studies)

Many scholars have denounced John Avery Lomaxs representations of himself a nd others. But Abrahams argues that it is instructive to consider Lomaxs li fe and work within the scholarly traditions and ideological currents of his times, including a romantic national search for a representative American bard, a literary tradition of recording and presenting vernacular creativit y for a general audience, and an environment that emphasized character deve lopment and self-instruction as the basis of self-improvement. He asserts t hat Lomaxs self-presentation drew upon numerous tropes that long had been c urrent in American writing and that he promoted himself using techniques th at were regarded by contemporary entrepreneurs as appropriate and even inve ntive. Finally, Abrahams suggests, Lomax benefited from scholarly patronage , and his subsequent public sponsorship of African American singers can be seen as an extension of the system under which he himself achieved national prominence as the chronicler of American vernacular song traditions.