Author of popular myth and legend collections. Raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a
family dominated by Universalist clergy, Skinner migrated to Brooklyn, New York, to
pursue a career in journalism. For many years a writer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, he
took an unusual interest in myths and legends, compiling several popular collections
mostly from written sources.
As a journalist, Skinner devoted much of his attention to nature writing and the
outdoors movement. Beginning in 1890, he contributed to Century magazine, Outlook,
Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines, articles on sky gazing, insects, urban gardening,
hiking, and the Brooklyn electric trolleys. Permeating these was a concern for the social
and economic ills of unrestrained urbanization and an effort to bring the principles of
AmericanTranscendentalism to bear on turn-of-the-century life.
In 1896 Skinner turned to folklore, publishing a two-volume compilation of Myths and
Legends of Our Own Land. The book achieved strong sales and was influential in shaping
popular tastes in folklore. Principally, it included local legends, organized by region, and
suggested a national folk culture that assimilated materials from European Americans
with other native and immigrant ethnicities. Using this basic plan, Skinner followed this
collection with Myths and Legends beyond Our Borders (1898), Myths and Legends of
Our New Possessions and Protectorates (1900), American Myths and Legends (1903),
and Myths andLegends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants, in All Ages and in All
Climes, which was published posthumously in 1911.
Skinner’s work was largely ignored by folklorists until Richard M.Dorson resurrected
him as an exemplar of unprofessional practices, citing Skinner’s dependence on
unreliable and unidentified sources and his rewriting of texts to cater to popular tastes.
But Skinner was never guided by these standards, instead using principles derived from
nature writing and Transcendentalism to develop through local legend a rejuvenated
American sense of place.
John Bealle
References
Bealle, John. 1994. Another Look at Charles M.Skinner. Western Folklore 53:99–123.
Dorson, Richard M. 1971. How Shall We Rewrite Charles M.Skinner Today? In American Folk
Legend: A Symposium, ed. Wayland D.Hand. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 69–
95.