author
Hubert G. (Hubert Gibson) Shearin
1878–1919
A scholar of language and folklore, this early 20th-century writer helped preserve the songs and ballads of Kentucky’s mountains while also publishing studies in Old English and biblical language. His work offers a rare mix of academic rigor and deep interest in living oral tradition.
1 Audiobook
A syllabus of Kentucky folk-songs
by Hubert G. (Hubert Gibson) Shearin, Josiah Henry Combs
About the author
Born in 1878, Hubert Gibson Shearin was an American scholar whose work moved between philology and folklore. Early in his career he published The Expression of Purpose in Old English Prose (1903), and later The That-Clause in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1910), showing his strong interest in the history and structure of English.
Shearin is especially remembered for his work on traditional music and storytelling in Kentucky. In 1911, while serving as Professor of English Philology at Transylvania University, he coauthored A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs with Josiah H. Combs and also published British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains. These works helped document songs that had been passed down orally and preserved important pieces of Appalachian cultural history.
He died in 1919. Though not widely known today, Shearin’s writing remains valuable to readers interested in folk tradition, regional culture, and the study of English language and literature.