Born: 09/18/1908   Indianapolis
Died: 03/15/1996
Parents: David and Tillie Courlander
Spouse: Ella Schneideman (1939- later divorced)/ Emma Meltzer (1949)
Children: Erika Wolfson, Michael, Susan

Image	Title	Genre	Audience	Publisher	Date
	A Treasury of African Folklore : The Oral Literature, Traditions, Myths, Legends, Epics, Tales, Recollections, Wisdom, Sayings, and Humor of Africa - Republished from A Treasury of African Folklore	Non Fiction , Folklore	Adult	Marlowe	1996
	A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore : The Oral Literature, Traditions, Recollections, Legends, Tales, Songs, Religious Beliefs, Customs, Sayings, and Humor of Peoples of African Descent in the Americas - Republished from The Mesa of Flowers	Non Fiction , Folklore	Adult	Marlowe	1996
	The Bordeaux Narrative	Historical Fiction	Adult	Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press	1990
	The Master of the Forge : A West African Odyssey	Fiction	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1985
	Hopi Voices : Recollections, Traditions, and Narratives of the Hopi Indians	Folklore , History	Adult	Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press	1982
	The Heart of the Ngoni: heroes of the African kingdom of Segu	Folklore , History	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1982
	Big Falling Snow: a Tewa-Hopi Indian's life and times and the history and traditions of his people - by Albert Yava ; edited and annotated by Harold Courlander. Reprinted, 1982 University of New Mexico Press.	Non Fiction	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1978 -1982
	The Mesa of Flowers - Later published as The Journey of the Grey Fox People	Fiction	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1977
	A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore	Folklore	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1976
	Treasury of African Folklore	Folklore	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1975
	The Son of the Leopard	Fiction , Folklore	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1974
	Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York : Crown Publishers	1973
	The Fourth World of the Hopis : the epic story of the Hopi Indians as preserved in their legends and traditions - Reprinted, 1987 University of New Mexico Press.	Folklore	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1971 -1987
	People of the Short Blue Corn : Tales and Legends of the Hopi Indians - (Publication Years: 1970, 1996)	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Holt	1970 -1996
	The African	Fiction	Adult	New York : Crown Publishers	1967
	Religion and Politics in Haiti; two essays, - With Remy Bastien	Non Fiction	Adult	Washington: Institute for Cross-Cultural Research	1966
	Negro Folk Music U.S.A. - (Publication Years: 1963, new edition 1992)	Non Fiction , Folklore	Adult	New York: Columbia University Press, Dover	1963 -1992
	Big Old World of Richard Creeks	Non Fiction	Adult	Philadelphia : Chilton Co., Book Division	1962
	The king's drum : and other African stories	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York, Harcourt, Brace & World	1962
	Negro Songs from Alabama - Sound recording.	Non Fiction	Adult	Folkways Records	1960
	On Recognizing the Human Species	Non Fiction	Adult	One Nation Library	1960
	The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People	Folklore	Adult	Berkeley :University of California Press	1960 -1985
	Shaping Our Times : What the United Nation Is and Does - (Publication Years: 1960, rev. 1962)	Non Fiction	Adult , Teen	New York, Oceana Publications	1960 -1962
	The hat-shaking dance, and other tales from the Gold Coast - with Albert Kofi Prempeh.	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York : Harcourt, Brace	1957
	The fire on the mountain : and other Ethiopian stories - with Wolf Leslau. Publication years, 1950, 1966, 1995.	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston	1950 -1995
	Kantchil's lime pit, and other stories from Indonesia	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York, Harcourt, Brace	1950
	Other works: - Compiler and Editor of Record Albums from his own field recordings	Non Fiction	Adult		1949 -1952
	The cow-tail switch, and other West African stories	Folklore	Adult , Children , Teen	New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston	1947
	- Published many books of Folk Tale Collections	Non Fiction			1942 -1982
	The Caballero	Fiction	Adult	New York: Farrar & Rinehart	1940
	Haiti Singing - Words of the songs in Creole and English.	Folklore	Adult	Chapel Hill: University of North Caolina Press	1939
	Home to Langford County	Drama	Adult	Blue Ox Press	1938
	Swamp Mud	Drama	Adult	Blue Ox Press	1936
	Other writings: - Contributor of articles to Saturday Review, Musical Quarterly, New Republic, Journal of Negro History, Oppotunity, Chicago Sun-Times, Village Voice, Michigan Alumnus, American Scholar, and Quarterly Magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan	Non Fiction

What is the aim or goal of your writing: 2nd ed. says, "I have always written only about things that greatly interest me, whether as non-fiction or fiction. I suppose my writing about Afro-Americans, Haitians, Africans, Indonesians and other people are motivated by a desire to know not what is different in the thinking and traditions of various cultures, but what is the same. To quote myself : 'All societies build their institutions and their way of life out of the common materials of the earth and their common human impulses...Between one group of people and another, regardless of their particular solutions of the problems of living, it is impossible to distinguish varying degrees of human nature. Just below the surface the manners and customs lies our common identity'." Contemporary Authors says, "Courlander, a collector of folklore from around the world, is perhaps best remembered for the controversy he generated in 1987, when he accused author Alex Haley of plagiarism. Courlander claimed that Haley had taken parts of his bestseller 'Roots' directly from Courlander's 1967 novel 'The African'."

May inquiries be sent to you about doing workshops, readings: No

Donated books to the Authors & Illustrators database project: No

Skills:
Author

MeLCat Links:
http://elibrary.mel.org/search~S15?/XHarold+Courlander+&searchscope=15&SORT=D/XHarold+Courlander+&searchscope=15&SORT=D&SUBKEY=Harold+Courlander+/1%2C206%2C206%2CB/browse#anchor_18

Harold Courlander Papers are housed at the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at The University of Southern Mississippi (http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/DG0227f.html)

Last Modified On: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM