Folklorist, born in Cadillac, Michigan, USA. He studied at Indiana University (PhD) and taught English and folklore at the University of Utah (1966). His early publications included work on Indiana, Utah, and Alberta folklore. In the 1980s he published several collections of American urban legends, including The Mexican Pet (1986).
Jan Harold Brunvand (born 1933) is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States who is best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, or modern folklore. Brunvand's breakthrough was to take concepts developed in the academic study of traditional folktales and apply them to stories circulating in the modern world.
Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1986), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses!
Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D.
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