The Folkways Anthology was produced on a $200 advance and peyote

Evidence

Asch (the son of the renowned Yiddish writer Sholem Asch) had several years earlier branched out from recorded Yiddish music to folk and ethnology. He gave Smith a $200 advance against royalties, a corner in his cramped midtown office and a supply of peyote buttons to create the Anthology. By night, Smith frequented the bebop citadel Birdland, at that time drinking only milk. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 676

Categorization

• CANDY: Absurd and tweetable: the foundational folk anthology was financed by $200 and peyote buttons.
• XREF: Supports the reader’s thesis that cheap rent and informal economies, not institutional funding, produce cultural density.