Harold Courlander facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Harold Courlander
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Courlander in 1955
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| Born | September 18, 1908 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | March 15, 1996 (aged 87) United States |
| Occupation | Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Genre | Folklore, non-fiction, fiction |
Harold Courlander (born September 18, 1908 – died March 15, 1996) was an American writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. He was very knowledgeable about life in Haiti. Courlander wrote 35 books and plays, plus many articles. He focused on the cultures of African, Caribbean, Afro-American, and Native American peoples. He was especially interested in oral literature (stories passed down by speaking), traditions, and how African cultures connected with Afro-American ones.
Contents
Harold Courlander's Life and Work
Early Life and Education
Harold Courlander was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, David Courlander, was a painter from Detroit, Michigan. Harold studied English at the University of Michigan and earned his degree in 1931. While there, he won three Avery Hopwood Awards for his writing. He also attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and Columbia University. In the 1930s, he lived on a farm in Romeo, Michigan, where he built a small log cabin to write in.
Exploring Haitian Culture
Courlander used his award money to travel to Haiti for the first time. He was inspired by the writings of William Buehler Seabrook. In 1939, he published his first book about Haiti, called Haiti Singing. Over the next 30 years, he visited Haiti more than 20 times. He studied religious practices, African traditions that continued in Haiti, oral stories, folklore, music, and dance. His book, The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People, published in 1960, became a very important book for understanding Haitian culture.
Recording Folk Music
Courlander also traveled a lot in the southern United States. In the 1940s and 1950s, he recorded folk music there. From 1947 to 1960, he was an editor for Ethnic Folkways Library. He even came up with the name for it! He recorded over 30 albums of music from many different cultures. These included music from Indonesia, Ethiopia, West Africa, Haiti, and Cuba. In 1950, he also made recordings in Alabama.
Studying Native American Stories
In the 1960s, Courlander began visiting the American Southwest. He went there to study the oral stories and culture of the Hopi Indians. His collection of folk tales, People of the Short Blue Corn: Tales and Legends of the Hopi Indians, came out in 1970. It quickly became a key book for studying oral literature.
Work During World War II and Beyond
During World War II, from 1942 to 1943, Harold Courlander worked as a historian. He worked for the Air Transport Command at Douglas Aircraft in Gura, Eritrea. After that, from 1943 to 1946, he was a writer and editor for the Office of War Information in New York City and Bombay, India.
From 1946 to 1956, he worked as a news writer and analyst for the Voice of America in New York City. He also worked for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1956 to 1957. From 1957 to 1960, he was a writer and editor for The United Nations Review. Finally, from 1960 to 1974, Courlander was a specialist and news analyst for the Voice of America in Washington, D.C..
The African and Roots Lawsuit
Harold Courlander wrote seven novels. His most famous one is The African, published in 1967. This novel tells the story of a slave captured in Africa. It describes his journey on a slave ship and his fight to keep his culture alive in a new, difficult world.
In 1978, Courlander filed a lawsuit. He claimed that Alex Haley, the author of Roots, had copied many parts from his novel.
Courlander's legal team stated that Haley had access to The African and copied a lot from it. They believed that Roots would have been very different without The African. They said Haley copied words, ideas, events, situations, and even characters.
The lawsuit did not say that the entire plot of The African was copied. The two novels have many different plot points. For example, Courlander's novel shows a successful revolt on the slave ship and a shipwreck. Haley's novel shows disease on the ship and a successful arrival in Maryland. The copying in Roots was about specific ideas and passages.
For instance, the way lice were described on the slave ship was very similar:
| Courlander, The African | Haley, Roots |
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| To the damp sick foulness in the belly of the ship there came to be added another torture—lice. ... They crawled on the face and drank at the corners of the eyes. ... If the fingers caught the predator, it was killed between the fingernails. | But the lice preferred to bite him on the face, and they would suck at the liquids in the corners of Kunta's eyes, or the snot draining from his nostrils. He would squirm his body, with his fingers darting and pinching to crush any lice that he might trap between his nails. |
A professor named Michael Wood from Columbia University reviewed the case. He said that the copying from The African in Roots was "clear and undeniable." He noted that Roots used The African as a guide, copying some parts and changing others. He stated that Roots took phrases, situations, ideas, and parts of the plot from The African.
During the trial, the judge, Robert J. Ward, said, "Copying there is, period." Passages from The African were even found attached to a page from the Roots manuscript. Alex Haley, however, said he had never heard of The African until after Roots was published. He thought someone else might have given him the copied passages. Later, an instructor named Joseph Bruchac said he had given Courlander's novel to Haley in 1970.
Courlander and Haley settled the case outside of court. Haley paid $650,000 and made a statement. He said, "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."
Harold Courlander's Family Life
Courlander married Ella Schneideman in 1939. They had one child, Erika Courlander, before they divorced.
He later married Emma Meltzer on June 18, 1949. They had two children together: Michael Courlander and Susan Jean Courlander.
Awards and Honors for Harold Courlander
Harold Courlander received many awards and grants during his life, including:
- The Newbery Honor Book Award in 1948 for his book The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories (with George Herzog)
- Guggenheim Fellowships and Grants in 1948, 1953, and 1958
- Wenner-Gren Foundation Grants for Anthropological Research in 1956, 1960, 1962, and 1970
- Franz Boas Fund Grant, 1939
- Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal Nomination for Contributions to Children's Literature in 1979
- American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults" list in 1969 for his book The African
- Parents' Choice "Remarkable" Award in 1982 for his book The Crest and The Hide
- The Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Michigan in 1984
- Avery Hopwood Award in Drama, 1931
- Avery Hopwood Award in Literary Criticism, 1931
- Avery Hopwood Award in Literary Criticism, 1932
- American Philosophical Society grants-in-aid for work regarding Haiti and Africa, 1946, 1953, 1957
- The Viking Fund grant-in-aid for study of African-American folk music in southern U.S., 1949
- American Council of Learned Societies research and publication grants, 1939, 1940, 1953
- Ford Foundation publication grant, 1958
- American Library Association's "Notable Children's Books" list for The Son of the Leopard, 1975
- American Library Association's "Notable Children's Books" list for The Crest and the Hide, 1982
- Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies for The Crest and the Hide, 1982
