Open to public research.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Austin E. and Alta S. Fife papers must be obtained from the
Austin and Alta Fife donated materials to Utah State University over many years beginning in 1966. Subsequent donations have come from their daughter, Marian Fife Rash after the death of Alta Fife in 1996, but mostly in 1997 and 1998. It is these last two donations from Marian that comprise the bulk of this collection.
Austin E. and Alta S. Fife papers, 1910-1996. (COLL MSS 281) Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives Department.
Austin Edwin Fife was born on December 18, 1909, in Lincoln, Idaho to Robert Harris and Mary Elizabeth Stocks Fife. When he was seven years old, his father moved the family to Logan, Utah, and Austin graduated from high school and LDS seminary in Logan. In 1928 he entered the Utah State Agricultural College, now Utah State University. He interrupted his studies to serve a mission for the LDS Church in France from 1929 to 1932, where he developed a love for the French language and French literature.
Upon his return, he continued studying at USAC for a further two years and in 1932, he met Alta Stevens from Bountiful, Utah. Alta was the daughter of George Henry and Clara Whitby Stevens. She was born on March 16, 1912, in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1919, her family moved to Bountiful, Utah. After she graduated from high school, she worked as a secretary and bookkeeper in Salt Lake. In 1932, she enrolled at USAC. However, in 1934, Austin received a fellowship to study at Stanford and he moved to Palo Alto, California where he completed his bachelors in French. On March 27, 1934, Austin and Alta married in Palo Alto. Alta quit school and worked to support the couple. They remained there while Austin completed his master of arts degree in Romance languages, which he obtained in 1935. They briefly moved to Massachusetts where Austin obtained an MA in Romance philology from Harvard University in 1937 and Alta worked as bookkeeper for the Harvard Psychological Clinic.
In 1937, Austin and Alta returned to Palo Alto and Austin obtained a PhD in Romance languages from Stanford University in 1939. His thesis, "The Concept of the Sacredness of Bees, Honey, and Wax in Christian Popular Tradition," showed his burgeoning interest in popular traditions and folklore. This was due in large part due to his work as a graduate student with Aurelio Espinoza, a prominent Spanish folklorist. It was also in 1939, that Alta and Austin began to study the folklore traditions of their own background, the Mormon community of Utah and Idaho. While both had by this time become inactive in the LDS Church, they were nevertheless interested in the culture which the LDS had developed in the Intermountain West. Austin early wrote articles saying that the LDS were a distinct and autonomous culture deserving of study and rich with folklore and traditions. Austin began teaching French at Santa Monica City College in California, where he taught until 1942. In their free time, they drove to southern Utah to collect folklore from the LDS communities. This first venture was to collect stories about the Three Nephites that figure so prominently in LDS lore. This research was published in 1941.
In 1942, Austin entered active duty with the United States Air Force. During World War II, Austin served primarily as a historian for his battalion and even published articles covering the history of their campaigns during the war. From March 1944 to November 1945, Austin served overseas in the Philippines. Alta, meanwhile, moved in with her parents in Bountiful along with her first child, Carolyn, who had been born in 1941. Alta continued to collect LDS folklore while Austin served and Austin began collecting folksongs and stories from soldiers in the Philippines.
Upon Austin's return in 1945, he began teaching at the Occidental College in Los Angeles. In 1947, their second daughter Marian was born. Austin taught at Occidental College until 1958, interrupting his service for three years to serve in the Air Force during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953. In 1953, he retired from active duty in the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel. During these years at Occidental College, Alta and Austin used every opportunity to gather LDS folklore in Utah. Driving a mobile home, they traveled all over Utah and Idaho gathering folk music and folktales from anyone who would talk to them. They even followed the Mormon Trail from Vermont to Utah bringing their children along and gathering stories from the locals about the LDS.
In 1958, Austin received a position at Parson's College in Iowa where he taught for one year. At the same time Austin served as a language specialist for the United States Office of Education. In 1960, he received an offer to return to his alma mater, Utah State University, and become the head of the Department of Languages, a position he retained until 1971. They returned to Logan and soon began their work on folklife in Utah. The 1960s also became the greatest period of publishing for the couple. While they had published two books and numerous articles in the 1950s, most prominently
While Austin taught mainly French and French literature while at college, his research continued to broaden into many areas of folklore and folklife. In 1950, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in France, in 1958 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study cowboy songs, and in 1970 they jointly received the National Endowment for the Arts Senior Scholar Award. Austin also served on many committees and on the boards of many organizations over his years as a scholar. From 1947 to 1971, he was an editor for
In 1966, Alta and Austin began donating some of their materials they had gathered over the years to Utah State University. These donations were the origin of the Fife Americana and Fife Mormon collections. In 1972, the USU Libraries established the Fife Library of Western Folklore, later renamed the Fife Folklore Archives.
In 1971, Austin stepped down from being department head, but continued teaching. It was that same year that he finally began teaching the subject which had so preoccupied his research for so many years when he taught the first folklore class at Utah State University. In 1975, he retired from teaching but not from his research. He continued to publish and even produced one more book, a translation of the
Source:
Biographical Data of Alta S. Fife. The Papers of Austin E. and Alta S. Fife. Mss Coll 281, Box 1, Fd 15. Special Collections and Archives, Utah State University Merrill Library: Logan, Utah.
Curricula Vitae and Data of Austin Fife. The Papers of Austin E. and Alta S. Fife. Mss Coll 281, Box 1, Fd 3. Special Collections and Archives, Utah State University Merrill Library: Logan, Utah.
Fife, James Milton. "Memoirs of Austin Fife." The Papers of Austin E. and Alta S. Fife. Mss Coll 281, Box 1, Fd 21. Special Collections and Archives, Utah State University Merrill Library: Logan, Utah.
Hand, Wayland D. "Austin E. Fife: An Appreciation." in
Toelken, Barre. "Alta S. Fife: 1912 – 1996." Unpublished Essay. 1996.
The papers of Austin E. and Alta S. Fife cover primarily the personal lives and correspondence of this prolific husband and wife research team who were the founders of the Fife Folklore Collection at Utah State University. Prior to her death, Alta Fife had organized much of her correspondence and personal papers as well as those of her husband. She also indicated in a note attached to the donated materials that much of the correspondence had been destroyed. However, what remains has been organized, as far as was possible, along the lines that Mrs. Fife proposed.
Box 1 is primarily personal, family, and genealogical information from both sides of her family. Oversize sheets used for genealogy are in Box 3. Box 2 contains Mrs. Fife's datebooks as well as journals kept by Austin Fife while in France in the 1960s. In addition to oversize genealogical data, Box 3 contains the journals Austin Fife kept during his LDS mission to France, written in both French and English, from 1929 to 1931. Boxes 4 and 5 contain correspondence between Alta and Austin, mostly during World War II while Austin was stationed overseas. It is important to note that during Austin's time in the Philippines, Alta and Austin numbered every letter they sent to each other to both ensure that every letter made it, and also to make referencing one another's letters easier. These numbers are noted on the folder descriptions. Boxes 6 through 11 contain all remaining correspondence grouped alphabetically. Mrs. Fife grouped her correspondence thematically so that all correspondence concerning one article are filed together and alphabetized by the primary reference. Thus, correspondence from various people may be found under one heading, and an individual or institution which has a separate folder, such as the Folklore Society of Utah, may be represented in other folders. Correspondence which had no clear reference to a larger issue, or which consisted of only one or two letters are filed under "A" Miscellaneous, "B" Miscellaneous, etc.
Box 12 contains the collected reviews of the Fifes' many books as well as a book given to Alta by Austin with an inscription in French to Alta on the title page. Box 13 contains items relating to the Man and His Bread museum Austin sought to establish in Logan, as well as newspaper clippings, articles, and advertisements relating to the Fifes and their work. Box 14, like boxes 6 through 11, contains correspondence, but this correspondence is focused solely on the Fifes' attempts to get permission to publish various musicians' and scholars' work, as well as permission granted by the Fifes to publish their work. This box likewise contains some miscellaneous items, such as collected articles by a friend, and an essay by D. Bufford which Alta helped to research.
Box 15 contains the papers relating to the establishment of the Fife Folklore Archives as well as research files used by Austin Fife to contains articles and essays useful to him in his work. The final box, Box 16, contains information regarding various committees on which Austin served, an index of every article written by Austin Fife, lectures given by Austin over the years, poetry written and translated by him, as well as many of his class notes and syllabi from his many years of teaching.
Note also that pages have been ripped out
(see also Box 9, Fd 10, Olson and Hogan)
(see also Box 8, Fd 5, Howmedica)
Also correspondence concerning George Reed Collection at University of Utah