George Malcolm Laws

George Malcolm Laws (January 4, 1919 – August 1, 1994) was a scholar of traditional British and American folk song. He was best known for his collection of traditional ballads "American Balladry from British Broadsides", published in 1957 by the American Folklore Society. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the English Department Faculty there in 1942. He gives his name to a system of coding ballads; one letter of the alphabet, followed by 2 numbers.