Child's monumental final collection was published postumously as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, at first in ten parts (1882–1898) and then in five quarto volumes, and for a long time was the authoritative treasury of their subject. The "English" and "Scottish" of the title notwithstanding, it was an international piece of research, with references that include thirty different language sources.
A commemorative article in the 2006 edition of the Harvard Magazine states:
Child’s enthusiasm and erudition shine throughout his systematic attempt to set the British ballad tradition in context with others, whether Danish, Serbian, or Turkish. He made no attempt to conceal or apologize for the sexuality, theatrical violence, and ill-concealed paganism of many ballads, but it is characteristic of the man that in his introduction to “Hugh of Lincoln,” an ancient work about the purported murder of a Christian child by a Jew, he wrote, “And these pretended child-murders, with their horrible consequences, are only a part of the persecution which, with all moderation, may be rubricated as the most disgraceful chapter in the history of the human race.”
Since Child did not live to complete the planned introduction to his work which was to have explained his methodology, it has sometimes been alleged his selection was arbitrary and based purely on personal taste. The most recent edition of the ballads, however, published in 2002, now includes Child's rediscovered essay, "Ballad Poetry," which he had published anonymously in 1874. Reviewing the new edition, Ian Olson notes that the rediscovered essay:
gives considerable insight into Child’s thinking after he had published his "first go" of English and Scottish Ballads in 1857-59 and was in the process of researching and reconsidering his last great work. It may not be Child’s "final statement" that we all wish he had lived to make, but it comes close in many ways, and nicely compliments the original Introduction to the 1880’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads made by Child’s successor, George Lyman Kittredge (retained in this volume).
For a listing of all the Child ballad types, and links to more information on each individual type, see List of the Child Ballads.
Read more about this topic: Francis James Child
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