British children's literature specialist, folklorist, and anthologist. In 1943 he married Iona (Margaret Balfour) Archibald (1923 ), and the birth of their first child prompted them to study the folklore of childhood. They published The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes in 1951, acknowledged widely for its scholarship as well as its sense of humour. They subsequently amassed a peerless collection of children's books, which is now housed in the Bodleian Library. Later works by Iona Opie include The Singing Game (1985), A Dictionary of Superstitions (1989), The People in the Playground (1993), and Children's Games with Things (1997).
He was joint winner of the £1000 Chosen Books competion, with his autobiographical novel or 'discursion' The Case of Being a Young Man (published in paperback, 1946)
He worked on a number of celebrated books with his wife Iona Opie (née Archibald). These included I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth (1947), The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951), The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book (1955), The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959), Children's Games in Street and Playground (1969) and The Classic Fairy Tales (1974).
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