William A. Owens, was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author, folklorist

Folkloristics

Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...

 and educator.

Biography

Owens was born in Pin Hook

Pin Hook, Texas

Pin Hook is an unincorporated community located in northeast Lamar County, east of Paris, Texas.-References:References:William A Owens, This Stubborn Soil, New York, Scribner [1966]-External links:* The Handbook of Texas Online...

, Lamar County, Texas. He was born into rural poverty, his father died when he was only a few days old and was educated at a one room school. He worked his way through college attending East Texas State Normal College in Commerce (now Texas A&M-Commerce), Paris Junior College

Paris Junior College

Paris Junior College, or PJC, was founded in 1924 as a campus of Paris Independent School District in the U.S. state of Texas and currently counts three campuses: Paris, Greenville, and Sulphur Springs with a total enrollment of 4,000 students...

 and graduated from Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...

 with a BA in English in 1932. He received a PhD in English from the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

 in 1941.

In 1940, Owens made a live recording of Roosevelt "Grey Ghost" Williams

Roosevelt Williams

Roosevelt Thomas "Grey Ghost" Williams was an African American blues pianist, with a 70-year career spanning from the 1920s through the 1990s.-History:...

 singing "Hitler Blues," a song written by Williams. The song received mention in TIME magazine and was broadcast by BBC Radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

 on a program hosted by Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke

Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...

 in 1940 about the American musical response to World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. This recording was instrumental to the development of Williams' career.

Owens served in the Army from 1942 to 1945 and was awarded the Legion of Merit

Legion of Merit

The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...

 for his work in the intelligence service in the Philippines.

Owens taught at Wesley College in Greenville, Texas

Greenville, Texas

Greenville is the county seat, and the largest city, of Hunt County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,557....

, Mississippi State College in Starkville and Texas A&M

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

 College in College Station, Texas

College Station, Texas

College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley. The city is located within the most populated region of Texas, near three of the 10 largest cities in the United States - Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio...

. He taught at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 from 1945 to 1974.

Partial Bibliography

• Slave Mutiny: The Revolt of the Schooner Amistad (1953) An account of the slave rebellion on the schooner La Amistad
  La Amistad
  La Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
  
  ISBN 1574780042
• This Stubborn Soil: A Frontier Boyhood (1966) An autobiographical account of growing up in Pin Hook, Texas
• Three Friends: Roy Bedichek, J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb (1969), Garden City, New York: Doubleday
• A Season of Weathering (1973)
• Eye-Deep in Hell (1989) An autobiographical account of his time in the intelligence service in the Philippines

External Sources

• Handbook of Texas Online
• William T Pilkington William A Owens, Southwest Writers Series (Number 17, 1968)