author
Samuel J. (Samuel John) Sackett
1928–2018
A literary scholar turned folklorist and novelist, he spent decades collecting stories and songs from the American West before bringing that same curiosity to fiction. His work ranges from Kansas folklore and cowboy music to playful, offbeat novels written later in life.
1 Audiobook
The Last Plunge
by Samuel J. (Samuel John) Sackett
About the author
Born in Redlands, California, in 1928, Samuel John Sackett—often published as Sam Sackett or S. J. Sackett—earned degrees from the University of Redlands and UCLA. He became known as an American literary scholar, folklorist, educator, and writer.
Sackett taught at Fort Hays State University for 23 years and built a lasting reputation through his work in folklore. Fort Hays preserves the Samuel J. Sackett Folklore Collection, made up of recordings he and his assistants created between 1954 and 1977, documenting folk music, stories, immigration memories, and everyday life in Kansas and beyond. His published work included Kansas Folklore, Cowboys and the Songs They Sang, and a study of Edgar Watson Howe, and he also helped found the Kansas Folklore Society.
Later in life, he wrote fiction as well as nonfiction, with books that included historical, comic, and literary reimaginings. He died on March 29, 2018, at age 90. No clear, verifiable portrait image was available from the sources I checked, so no profile image is included here.