Skinner was born in Victor, New York, but his family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, a year after his birth.

[3] Skinner published collections of myths, legends and folklore from across the United States, including its territories, and North America.

Skinner hoped that America's progress would transform the nation's few legends into few but great ones — "as time goes on the figures seen against the morning twilight of our history will rise to more commanding stature.

"[4] He hoped to combine folklore conventions with New England transcendentalism to keep alive traditions endangered by the industrial age.

His other contributions to American literature included works of natural history such as With Feet to the Earth and Do-Nothing Days.