Gary Butler was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland, where he completed Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Arts degrees at Memorial University of Newfoundland. With an honours major in French, he pursued further studies in french cultre at the Université de Bordeaux III, in France. Upon receiving his Maîtrise ès Lettres in 1979, he returned to Memorial to take up postgraduate studies in Folklore. He received his Ph.D. in 1985, and in the same year won the Folklore Fellows Award for best published paper of the year. Since then, Dr. Butler has taught French, Linguistics, and Folklore/Anthropology at York University in North York, Ontario, where he is currently Assistant Professor with the Division of Humanities.