Custom and Myth

An eminent Scottish scholar, editor, essayist and man of letters, Lang collaborated with S.H. Butler to translate the Odyssey (1879) and with E.J. Myers and Walter Leaf, the Iliad (1882). A graduate of Oxford, he not only invigorated studies in folklore, myth, and religion, but edited inspiring adaptations of many fairy tales in a 12-volume collection, where he named each volume after a color (e.g., Red Fairy Book, 1889). He also created some well-known fairy tales of his own: for example, the Gold of Fairnilee (1888), Prince Prigio (1889), and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia (1893).