Author, illustrator, photographer, and folklore collector. Johnson was born near Hadley,
Massachusetts, the son of a small farmer; he left school at age fifteen to work in a
bookstore in Northampton. There he acquired a great love for books and pictures, and he
decided to be an artist. He spent several winters studying at the Art Students’ League in
New York City, supporting himself by drawing and writing. By 1885 he had developed a
small market for his illustrations, whereupon he returned to the family farm at Hadley, his
home for the rest of his life. Five years later, in 1890, he bought a camera and started
taking photographs as an aid to his drawing. He showed some photos to a publisher,
meaning to suggest the subject matter of drawings he wished to sell, but to Johnson’s
surprise the publisher bought the photographs. This convinced him that he should write
books as a means of selling his photographs, and eventually he wrote, edited, or
illustrated more than 100 volumes.
Johnson’s titles include The New England Country, The Farmer’s Boy, a ten-volume
American highways and byways series, two county histories (Historic Hampshire and
Camden County), and a book of reminiscences of the Civil War collected from former
soldiers on both sides, titled Battleground Adventures in the Civil War. Most of his
publications contain some examples of folklore, but of most significance to folklorists are
his series of fairy-tale books named for American trees (The Oak Tree Fairy Book, The
Birch Tree Fairy Book, and so forth); Mother Goose Rhymes My Children Love Best,
which contains otherwise unreported rhymes evidently taken from New England folk
tradition; The Country School in New England, Old-Time Schools and School-Books
([1904] 1963); and What They Say in New England ([1896] 1963). The latter book is
important as a pioneer collection of Anglo American sayings, signs, beliefs, rhymes,
songs, folktales, and legends.
Clifton Johnson was no theorist or analyst, but rather a knowledgeable writer who,
apparently, developed rapport with a wide variety of people. From them he garnered
much important material, and he reported it accurately and without “improvements.” For
that reason, his data are still useful and his works are still worthwhile sources.
W.K. McNeil
References
Johnson, Clifton. [1896] 1963. What They Say in New England and Other American Folklore. New
York: Columbia University Press.
——. [1904] 1963. Old-Time Schools and School-Books. New York: Dover.