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Jan Harold Brunvand is an American folklorist. A professor emeritus of the University of Utah, he is best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, a form of modern folklore. Before his work, folk tales were associated in the popular mind with ancient times or rural cultures; Brunvand has taken concepts developed in the academic study of traditional folktales and applied them to stories circulating in the modern world. He popularized the term "urban legend", as opposed to the term "contemporary legend" preferred by most other scholars of folklore. "His bestselling books, newspaper columns, and talk show appearances made him the legend scholar with the greatest influence on twentieth-century media."
Brunvand is the author of several popular books on the topic of urban legends, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book and his syndicated newspaper column brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman, The Mexican Pet, Curses! Broiled Again!, The Baby Train, The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, as well as several textbooks. He served as editor of the Journal of American Folklore and was president of the American Folklore Society.
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