Collector of Louisiana French folklore. Born in St. James Parish, Louisiana, son of a
sugar planter, Fortier was a member of a prominent Creole family. In 1884 he became
professor of French at the University of Louisiana, which later became Tulane
University, and he spent his academic career there. He was an important figure in New
Orleans educational and intellectual circles, and a school, a park, and a street in the city
are named after him.
His own French heritage and devotion to French culture influenced his interest in
collecting folklore, though he had other scholarly interests. His principal contribution to
folklore is his book Louisiana Folk-Tales (1895), the second volume published in the
American Folklore Society’s Memoir Series. The tales it contains were collected by
Fortier and two of his nieces from Creole-speaking African Americans, and they were
published in both English and French. He also published an article on customs and
superstitions in the first volume of the Journal of American Folklore, drawn mostly from
his childhood memories of African American life on his family plantation, and he made a
field trip to the Acadian countryin 1890.
Fortier was a talented organizer who in 1892 established the Louisiana Association of
the American Folklore Society, one of several branches of the national society and the
only one located in the South. For several years, this organization played a role in the
cultural life of New Orleans, and a number of prominent educators, writers, and
community leaders were members who collected and discussed folklore. Fortier was also
active in the national society, becoming its president in 1894.
Frank de Caro
References
Crombie, Jeanne F. 1972. Professor Alcée Fortier, 1856–1914. Louisiana Historical Quarterly
60:v–x, 1–62.
De Caro, F.A. 1985. A History of Folklife Research in Louisiana. In Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to
the State, ed. Nicholas R.Spitzer. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Folklife Program and Center for Gulf
South History and Culture, pp. 11–34.
Jordan, Rosan Augusta. 1992. Folklore Study in New Orleans’ Gilded Age: The “Louisiana
Association.” Louisiana Folklore Miscellany 7:2–22.