The Forget-Me-Not Songsters and Their Role in the American Folksong Tradition

By Norm Cohen

In 1904 Henry Marvin Belden, already a knowledgeable ballad/folksong scholar though yet to cap a distinguished career with his erudite annotations to the exemplary field collections from Missouri and North Carolina, published a short article in Modern Philology titled "The Ballad of Lord Bakeman." It began:

There has come into my hands recently (through the kindness of Mr W. S. Johnson, of Tuscumbia, Mo.) a humble but very interesting little volume of British and American ballads. The first fifty pages and an unknown number at the end are lost, as well as title page and cover, so that the title and the date and place of publication can be only conjectured. The pages (2 3⁄4 by 1⁄2 inches in size) have the running head Popular Songs, which was no doubt the title. The date is some time after 1835, for one of the pieces contains that date.