Dean Fansler, also Dean S. Fansler, was an American professor. He was a teacher of English at Columbia University in the early 20th century and brother of Priscilla Hiss (wife of Alger Hiss),[1] who, as a "noted folklorist" helped preserve Filipino folklore culture in the early 20th century, after centuries of Spanish and American domination.[2]
Dean Spruill Fansler was born in 1885. His father was Thomas Lafayette Fansler, mother Willa Roland Spruill, and younger sister Priscilla Hiss, born Priscilla Harriet Fansler.[1][3][4] In 1906, he received a BA from Northwestern University and MA (1907) and doctorate (1913) from Columbia.[5]
In 1908, Fansler started working at the University of the Philippines. From then through 1914, he collected Filipino folklore tales. [6]
By 1914, Fansler appears in the Columbia College catalog as an assistant professor of English.[5] In the early 1920s, Fansler was a professor at Columbia College and receives mention as an acquaintance (probably teacher) in the first autobiography of Mortimer J. Adler.[1]
Franz Boas recommended that Fansler earn his doctorate and inspired him to prepare Philippine material for publication.[7]
In 1956, the "most widely known collection of Philippine folktales" was Dean Fansler's Filipino Popular Tales.[8]
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