Gerald Thomas (1940–2005)

Abstract

Gerald Thomas died at his home in Torbay, Newfoundland, on September 6, 2005, after a short struggle with cancer. Born in Porthcawl, Wales, on December 29, 1940, he gained a B.A. (Hons.) in French and Romance Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 1963, then taught for a year at a lycée in Marseilles, before taking up a position as lecturer in the Department of French at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. There he met the American folklorist, Herbert Halpert, who would found Memorial's Department of Folklore in 1968. One of Halpert's many specialities within narrative was the tall tale and he soon took advantage of his young colleague's language skills by inviting him to make a translation of a sixteeenth-century French text: La Nouvelle Fabrique des Excellents Traits de Verité by Philippe d'Alcripe, which contains 110 tall tales recorded as the chronicle of a Liars' Club. Halpert encouraged Thomas to take an M.A. in folklore, under his supervision, turning his translation into a thesis with annotations on the tales, and with a comprehensive discussion of the tall tale as a genre. Published in 1977 by Memorial University, in association with the American Folklore Society, this work remains unsurpassed as a treatment of the lying tale.