Biography;

Scholar of popular culture; University professor; editor. Born– January 15, 1922, Millport. Parents– Garfield and Anne Browne. Married–(1) Olwyn Carmen Orde (died 1964); (2) Alice Pat Matthews, August 1, 1965. Children–Three. Education– University of Alabama, A.B., 1943; Columbia University, M.A., 1947; University of California at Los Angeles, Ph.D., 1956. Military service:  U.S. Army, 1943-46. Instructor of English at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1947-50; University of Maryland, 1956-60; Purdue University, 1960-67; professor of popular culture, Bowling Green State University, 1967-1992. Founder of the Center for Popular Culture and the Popular Writers Hall of Fame and Museum; editor of Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of American Culture,  and Journal of Regional Cultures. Contributed to many professional journals and anthologies. Founder/member Popular Culture Association, American Culture Association, and other professional associations.  Named a Distinguished University Professor at Bowling Green University, 1977, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus on his retirement in 1992. Died October 22, 2009.

Source:

Contemporary Authors online.

Publication(s):

Against Academia: The History of the Popular Culture Association. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989.

The Alabama Folk Lyric; a Study in Origins and Media Disseminations. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1979.

Folk Beliefs and Practices from Alabama.  University of California Press, 1958.

Heroes and Humanities:  Detective Fiction and Culture.  Bowling Green University, 1986.

Lincoln Lore. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1975.

The Many Tongues of Literacy.  Bowling Green University, 1992.

Melville’s Drive to Humanism. Lafayette, Ind.; Purdue University Press, 1971.

A Night with the Hants and Other Alabama Folk Experiences. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976.

Objects of Special Devotion; Fetishism in Popular Culture. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1981.

Popular Abstracts.  Bowling Green University. 1978.

Rituals and Ceremonies in Popular Culture.  Bowling Green University, 1981.

The Spirit of Australia; the Crime Fiction of Arthur W. Upfield. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Editor:

The Burke-Paine Controversy. New York; Harcourt, 1963.

The Celtic Cross. Layfayette, Ind.; Purdue University Studies, 1964.

Challenges In American Culture. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1970.

Contemporary Heroes and Heroines. Detroit; Gale Research, 1990.

Continuities in Popular Culture.  Bowling Green, 1993.

Crises on Campus. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1970.

Critical Approaches to American Literature. New York; Crowell, 1965.

Dominant Symbols in Popular Culture.  Bowling Green University, 1987.

Forbidden Fruits:  Taboos and Tabooism in Culture.  Bowling Green University, 1978.

Frontiers of American Culture. Purdue University Studies. 1968.

Heroes of Popular Culture.  Bowling Green 1972.

Icons of Popular Culture.  Bowling Green, 1970 (2nd ed., 1972).

The Indian Doctor: Frontier Pharmacology.  Indiana Historical Society, 1964.

Mark Twain’s Quarrel with Heaven, “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” and Other Sketches. New Haven, Conn.; College and University Press, 1969.

New Voices in American Studies. Lafayette, Ind.; Purdue University Studies, 1966.

Popular Culture & Curricula. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1969.

Popular Culture and the Expanding Consciousness.  Wiley, 1973.

The Popular Culture Explosion.  William C. Brown, 1972.

Themes and Directions in American Literature.  Purdue University Studies, 1969.

Teach In. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1971.

Contributor:

The Defective Detective In Pulps. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1983.

Joint_Publication(s):

Digging Into Popular Culture …. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991.

Dimensions of Detective Fiction. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1976.

Joint_Editor:

The Cultures of Celebrations.  Bowling Green, 1994.

Detective as Historian:  History and art in historical crime fiction.  Bowling Green,  2000.

The Global Village: Dead or Alive?  Bowling Green, 1999.

The God Pumpers; Religion in The Electronic Age. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987.

The Gothic World of Anne Rice.  Bowling Green, 1996.

The Gothic World of Steve King; Landscape of Nightmares. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987.

Guide to United States Popular Culture.  Bowling Green State University, 2001.

Laws of Our Fathers; Popular Culture and The U.S. Constitution. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1986.

More Tales of The Defective Detective in Pulps. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1985.

Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detective; From The Dime Novel. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1990.

Ordinary reactions to extraordinary events.  Bowling Green, 2001.

Pioneers in Popular Culture Studies.  Bowling Green, 1999.

Preview:  Two thousand and one + : Popular culture studies in the future.  Bowling Green 1999.

Rejuvenating the Humanities.  Bowling Green, 1992.

Symbiosis; Popular Culture and Other Fields. Bowling Green, Ohio; Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Papers:

Papers of Ray B. Browne are held by the Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green University, Ohio.