Dorothy Gladys Spicer

Dorothy Gladys Spicer (November 3, 1893 – January 25, 1975), also known as Gladys Spicer Fraser, was an American folklorist and writer.

This article is about the American writer born in 1893; for the English aviator born in 1908 with a similar name, see Dorothy Spicer.
Dorothy Gladys Spicer
A young white woman with short dark hair, wearing glasses and a white blouse
Dorothy Gladys Spicer, from the 1916 yearbook of Vassar College
BornNovember 3, 1893
Staten Island, New York
DiedJanuary 25, 1975 (age 81)
White Plains, New York
Other namesGladys Spicer Fraser
Occupation(s)Folklorist, writer

Early life and education

Spicer was born in Staten Island, New York, the daughter of Jacob Lindley Spicer and Phoebe Bryan Washburn Spicer. Her father was a Quaker field secretary and police chaplin,[1] and her mother was a registered nurse.[2] She graduated from Vassar College in 1916.[3][4] She earned a master's degree from Radcliffe College.[5]

Career

Spicer was on the staff of the national board of the YWCA.[6][7] In 1943, she was named nationality communities secretary of the YWCA,[8] responsible for outreach to immigrant groups.[6][9] She organized classes about American cookery[10] and gave presentations to community groups about ethnic customs and celebrations, based on her research and travels in Europe.[11] She was art adviser to the Utica Festival of Arts and Crafts in 1938,[5] and advised the New Jersey State Museum on an exhibit of Latin American arts and crafts.[4]

She was a full-time writer after midlife, with broader travels to China, Ceylon, and the Middle East. "Once you become a sleuth in such matters, each hour is an adventure, each day a journey into the unknown," she explained to a reporter in 1960.[12]

Publications

In addition to her books on folk customs for adults, Spicer wrote cookbooks,[13] fiction,[14] and a series of story collections for children, with the matching titles 13 Monsters, 13 Witches (1963), 13 Ghosts (1965), 13 Giants (1966), 13 Devils (1967),[15] 13 Goblins, 13 Rascals, and 13 Dragons (1974).[16][17] She wrote classroom plays,[18] including The Song of the Coffee Bird (1932) for a curriculum package distributed by the Bureau of Coffee Information.[19][20]

  • Folk Festivals and the Foreign Community (1923)[21][22]
  • "Health Practices and Beliefs of the Immigrant Mother as Seen by a Social Worker" (1926)[23]
  • Holiday Parties (1939)[24]
  • Parties for young Americans (1940)[25]
  • Latin American costumes (1941, with Yolanda Bartas and André Gloeckner)[26][27]
  • Windows Open to the World: a Handbook of World Fellowship Projects (1946)[28]
  • From an English Oven--Cakes, Buns and Breads of County Tradition (1948)[13][29]
  • Folk Party Fun (1954)[30]
  • Yearbook of English festivals (1954)[31]
  • Festivals of Western Europe (1958)[32]
  • Feast-Day Cakes from Many Lands (1960)[12]
  • 46 Days of Christmas (1960)[33]
  • The Book of Festivals (1937)[7][34]
  • The Owl's Nest: Folktales from Friesland (1968, with illustrations by Alice Wadowski-Bak)[35]
  • Long Ago in Serbia (1968, with Linda Ominsky)[36]
  • The Humming Top (1968)
  • The kneeling tree, and other folktales from the Middle East (1971)
  • The Crystal Ball (1975, novel)[14]

Personal life

Spicer married Malcolm Charles Fraser in 1925; they divorced in 1927.[37] She died in 1975, at the age of 81, in White Plains, New York.[17]

References
  1. "Rev. J. L. Spicer, Police Chaplin, Dies at Home". The Brooklyn Citizen. 1928-05-20. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Veteran Nurse Dies". The Post-Star. 1942-12-01. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Vassar College, Vassarion (1916 yearbook): 107.
  4. "1916 (class notes)". Vassar Quarterly. 27 (2): 23. December 1, 1941 – via Vassar Newspaper and Magazine Archive.
  5. "Learned about Folklore from People". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1943-06-20. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Boro 'Y' Names Woman Writer to High Post". The Brooklyn Citizen. 1943-06-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Cushman, Elizabeth (1937-10-02). "'Book of Festivals', Just Published, is Work of Dorothy Gladys Spicer". Mount Vernon Argus. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Festival Customs". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1944-01-09. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Corby, Jane (1929-01-23). "Helps Foreign-Born Women to Keep Up with their Americanized Husbands--Through Neighborliness". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Pettigrew, Margaret (1943-09-22). "Learn Fine Points of Our Cookery". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Two Y.W.C.A. Groups Plan Parties This Week". Times Union. 1932-03-13. p. 60. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Erbeck, Janett R. (1960-11-07). "Two Books Just Published Bring City Author's Record to 14". The Reporter Dispatch. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. McCarroll, Marion Clyde (1949-02-07). "English Specialties for American Cooks". The Evening News. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Spicer, Dorothy (1975). The crystal ball. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-26696-X. OCLC 8470539.
  15. Colvin, Martha T. (1973-06-11). "Folklore Fantasies Fascinate Children". Springfield News-Sun. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1974). 13 Dragons. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. ISBN 978-0-698-20254-2.
  17. "Galdys Fraser". The Reporter Dispatch. 1975-01-29. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Bzowski, Frances Diodato (1992). American Women Playwrights, 1900-1930: A Checklist. Greenwood Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-313-24238-0.
  19. "Publications". Nevada Educational Bulletin. 16 (4): 11. February 1934.
  20. Library of Congress Copyright Office (1933). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and Motion Pictures. New Series. p. 336.
  21. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1923). Folk festivals and the foreign community. New York, N.Y.: The Woman's Press.
  22. Redfield, Margaret Park (May 1925). "Folk Festivals and the Foreign Community. Dorothy Gladys Spicer". American Journal of Sociology. 30 (6): 745–746. doi:10.1086/213798. ISSN 0002-9602.
  23. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys. "Health Practices and Beliefs of the Immigrant Mother as Seen by a Social Worker." Hygeia 4 (1926): 319-21.
  24. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1939). Holiday parties. New York: The Woman's Press.
  25. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1940). Parties for young Americans. New York: The Woman's Press.
  26. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys; Gloeckner, André.; Bartas, Jolanda (1941). Latin American costumes. New York: The Hyperion Press.
  27. Gives, John Selby (1941-12-24). "Literary Guide". The Daily Ardmoreite. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1946). Windows Open to the World: A Handbook of World Fellowship Projects. Woman's Press.
  29. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1948). From an English oven; cakes, buns and breads of county tradition. New York: Women's Press.
  30. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1954). Folk party fun. New York: Association Press.
  31. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1954). Yearbook of English festivals. New York: H. W. Wilson Co.
  32. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1958). Festivals of Western Europe. New York: H.W. Wilson Co.
  33. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1960). 46 days of Christmas; a cycle of Old World songs, legends and customs. New York: Coward-McCann.
  34. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1937). The book of festivals. New York, N.Y.: The Woman's Press.
  35. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys; Wadowski-Bak, Alice (1968). The owl's nest; folktales from Friesland. New York: Coward-McCann.
  36. Spicer, Dorothy Gladys (1968). Long Ago in Serbia. Westminster Press.
  37. "Decrees Granted". Reno Gazette-Journal. 1927-01-20. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
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