Cecil Sharp

Others came before and after him but no person is more strongly associated with the revival of English folk song and dance at the turn of the twentieth-century than Cecil Sharp (1859-1924). He collected about 5000 folk songs and nearly 500 dances. This prodigious achievement is told by someone who perhaps knew him better than anyone else. Maud Karpeles was his assistant for many years and accompanied him on his expeditions to the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This remains the definitive biography of the greatest figure in the English folk song and dance movement.