Edwin Ford Piper

Edwin Ford Piper (February 8, 1871 - May 17, 1939) was an American poet, academic, and collector of folksongs.

Life
Piper was born in Auburn, Nebraska, a few miles west of the Missouri River, to Joseph Benson and Lucinda Adeline Ford Piper. While he was growing up, he listened to the songs, rhymes, square dancing calls, and prayer meeting calls of the hired hands, hobos, itinerant fiddlers -- anyone who created music. He also learned songs from his mother and his sister Ella. These folk expressions had a great effect upon Piper.

In 1893 he entered the University of Nebraska, where he earned an A.B.] in 1897 and an [[Master of Arts (postgraduate)|A.M. in 1900.

In 1905 he joined the University of Iowa faculty, where he taught Chaucer and writing. He served as advisor to The Midland and American Prefaces, and was the chief sponsor of Kinnikinnick.

He published 5 collections of poetry. He was in great demand as a reader, and his habit of breaking into song when the poem demanded it earned him the nickname "the singing professor."

In 1897, Piper began transcribing ballads and songs remembered from his childhood. In 1909 he became more systematic about this endeavor, gathering songs printed in newspapers and magazines, collecting them from older singers, exchanging them with other scholars. Eventually, indexes were made for the songs he had collected. These materials now comprise the Piper Collection.