Lummis, Charles F(letcher)
Lummis, Charles F(letcher)
Lummis, Charles F(letcher), American ethnomusicologist; b. Lynn, Mass., March 1, 1859; d. Los Angeles, Nov. 25, 1928. He received instruction in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin from his father, and later took courses at Harvard Univ. (1877–80). During a crosscountry hike from Ohio to Calif., he became interested in the cultures of the American Indians and of Mexican-Americans and made pioneering recordings of American Indian music and folk songs. He was city ed. of the Los Angeles Times (1885–87) and also ed. of Land of Sunshine (1894–1901) and Out West (1902–9); he also wrote novels and poetry. He founded the Landmarks Club (1895) and the Sequoia Club (1902), which espoused Indian causes. In 1907 he founded the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, which serves as the depository of his valuable collection. With A. Farwell, he publ. Spanish Songs of Old California (1923).
Bibliography
E. Bingham, CF. L: Editor of the Southwest (San Marino, Calif., 1955); M. Simmons, Two Southwesterners: C. L. and Amando Chaves (Cerillos, N.Mex., 1968); D. Gordon, CF. L: Crusador in Corduroy (Los Angeles, 1972); T. Fiske and K. Lummis, CF. L: The Man and His West (Norman, Okla., 1975); R. Fleming, CF. L. (Boise, Idaho, 1981).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire