Accent on Living

November 20, 1958
DEAR MR. MORTON:
With some astonishment I read the attack on myself and my folklore collecting in Maine in the article, “Research Project,” by John Gould in the November, 1958, Accent on Living. I am at a loss to understand how the editors of the Atlantic could permit the slanderous reference to my work by Mr. Gould as a “fraud upon the American Philosophic Society.” He knows nothing of my work, even in Maine, and has based his piece on a little secondary article of mine he ran across, without reading my major report published in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.
I am confident that, in the interests of truth and fair play, you will accord me equal space and position to reply to Mr. Gould, and I herewith enclose my rejoinder.
Sincerely yours,
RICHARD M. DORSON, Editor
Journal of American Folklore

November 24, 1958
DEAR MR. DORSON:
Your letter of November 20 reached us today, but I am sorry to report that it came too late for inclusion in the correspondence column of the January Atlantic, which we sent to press last week. We are publishing three remonstrances to Mr. Gould’s article, and we should have been glad to present your own had it reached us in time.
Sincerely yours,
CHARLES W. MORTON, Associate Editor

November 30, 1958
DEAR MR. MORTON:
Your letter of November 24 has come, saying that my reply to the article by John Gould reached you too late for your January issue. The February issue is quite agreeable with me. I wrote my rebuttal immediately on seeing Mr. Gould’s piece, but, not knowing I was to be knifed by him in the November Atlantic, I did not learn of the article for several weeks. I see that your correspondence columns deal with the same article for several months running.
It is not after all a question of my missing a deadline I couldn’t know about. The question is whether the Atlantic will honor my right to reply to a personal attack.
If others have already found fault with Mr. Gould’s article, that seems all the more reason I should be heard from. I am the only person directly involved. Mr. Gould’s entire article, line by line, word by word, is a direct attack upon me and my work. Though he withheld my name, every folklorist in the country knows who is meant, and so do the readers of Northeast Folklore and the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.
Fun is fun, but I cannot sit by while the accusation is made that my project was a “fraud upon the American Philosophic Society.” This vicious charge, in the Atlantic, impugns my professional competence and personal integrity as well as the confidence in me of a distinguished body of learned men.
Actually I had hoped that in all fairness my rejoinder would be included in the Accent on Living section rather than in the correspondence column. The questions raised in the exchange between Mr. Gould and myself are of general interest and involve widely held misconceptions about the nature of folklore.
I earnestly request that you will not withhold my reply in your pages to the irresponsible ridicule and calumny cast upon me.
Sincerely yours,
RICHARD M. DORSON, Editor
Journal of American Folklore