Leslie Shepard
British editor and researcher

Leslie Alan Shepard (21 June 1917 – 20 August 2004) was a British author, archivist, and curator who wrote books on a range of subjects including street literature, early film, and the paranormal.
Career
Shepard was instrumental in documenting the work of the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre and collaborated with Paul Newham to formulate an extended vocal technique based on the analysis of speaking and singing voices from diverse cultures and oral traditions. Shepard also curated and either published or archived hundreds of documents and audio recordings including Irish ballad sheets and original examples of street literature, a subject on which he was considered an authority. In addition, Leslie Shepard was cited as an expert on the writings of Bram Stoker, Irish author of the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. In collaboration with Albert Power, Shepard publicized and organized the Bram Stoker Society collecting, cataloging, and archiving numerous writings about both Stoker and the mythical Vampire, which the novelist used as the basis for the title character and antagonist 'Count Dracula' in his novel.
Selected publications
Shepard, L. The Broadside Ballad: A Study in Origins and Meaning. London H Jenkins Publishers 1962.
Shepard, L. The History of the Horn: A Bibliographical Essay. Rampant Lions Press 1977.
Shepard, L. Dracula Book of Great Horror Stories.
The public source identifies “Leslie Shepard” as british editor and researcher. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Leslie, Shepard and British.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20679478. VIAF identifies the subject as 52961462. The Library of Congress control number is n79054731. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 2004, 1897 and 1962.
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This entry incorporates text from “Leslie Shepard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.