Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.
Life and career Lang was born in 1844 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. He was the eldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and his wife Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was the daughter of Patrick Sellar, factor to the first Duke of Sutherland. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Lang, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados. She was (or should have been) variously credited as author, collaborator, or translator of Lang's Colour/Rainbow Fairy Books which he edited.
He was educated at Selkirk Grammar School, Loretto School, and the Edinburgh Academy, as well as the University of St Andrews and Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in the final classical schools in 1868, becoming a fellow and subsequently honorary fellow of Merton College. He soon made a reputation as one of the most able and versatile writers of the day as a journalist, poet, critic, and historian. He was a member of the Order of the White Rose, a Neo-Jacobite society which attracted many writers and artists in the 1890s and 1900s. On 6 December 1888, Lang was elected president of The Folklore Society following the resignation of George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford from the position. In 1906, he was elected FBA.
He died of angina pectoris on 20 July 1912 at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel in Banchory, survived by his wife. He was buried in the cathedral precincts at St Andrews, where a monument can be visited in the southeast corner of the 19th-century section.
Scholarship
Folklore and anthropology
Lang is now chiefly known for his publications on folklore, mythology, and religion. His interest in folklore was from early life; he read John Ferguson McLennan before coming to Oxford, and then was influenced by E. B. Tylor.John Wyon Burrow, Evolution and Society: a study in Victorian social theory (1966), p. 237; Google Books.
The earliest of his publications is Custom and Myth (1884). In Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887) he explained the "irrational" elements of mythology as survivals from more primitive forms. Lang's Making of Religion was heavily influenced by the 18th-century idea of the "noble savage": in it, he maintained the existence of high spiritual ideas among so-called "savage" races, drawing parallels with the contemporary interest in occult phenomena in England. His Blue Fairy Book (1889) was an illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang's Fairy Books despite most of the work for them being done by his wife Leonora Blanche Lang and a team of assistants. In the preface to the Lilac Fairy Book he credits his wife with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections. Lang examined the origins of totemism in Social Origins (1903).
Psychical research Lang was one of the founders of "psychical research" and his other writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897), Magic and Religion (1901) and The Secret of the Totem (1905). He served as president of the Society for Psychical Research in 1911.Grattan-Guinness, Ivor. (1982). Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles and Practices: In Celebration of 100 Years of the Society for Psychical Research. Aquarian Press. p. 123.
Lang extensively cited nineteenth- and twentieth-century European spiritualism to challenge the idea of his teacher, Tylor, that belief in spirits and animism was inherently irrational. Lang used Tylor's work and his own psychical research in an effort to posit an anthropological critique of materialism. Andrew Lang fiercely debated with his Folklore Society colleague Edward Clodd over 'Psycho-folklore,' a strand of the discipline which aimed to connect folklore with psychical research.Bihet, Francesca (2019) Late-Victorian Folklore Studies and Fairy-Lore. In: Betwixt and Between, 18–19 May 2019, Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle. http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/4685/
Classical scholarship
He collaborated with S. H. Butcher in a prose translation (1879) of Homer's Odyssey, and with E. Myers and Walter Leaf in a prose version (1883) of the Iliad, both still noted for their archaic but attractive style. He was a Homeric scholar of conservative views. Other works include Homer and the Study of Greek found in Essays in Little (1891); Homer and the Epic (1893); a prose translation of The Homeric Hymns (1899), with literary and mythological essays in which he draws parallels between Greek myths and other mythologies; Homer and His Age (1906); and "Homer and Anthropology" (1908).Andrew Lang, "Homer and Anthropology," in Homer and the Classics: Six Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford by Arthur J. Evans, Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, F.B. Jevons, J.L. Myres, and W. Warde Fowler, ed. R.R. Marett, 44-65 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1908).
Historian
Lang's writings on Scottish history are characterised by a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. The Mystery of Mary Stuart (1901) was a consideration of the fresh light thrown on Mary, Queen of Scots, by the Lennox manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge, approving of her and criticising her accusers.
He also wrote monographs on The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart (1906) and James VI and the Gowrie Mystery (1902). The somewhat unfavourable view of John Knox presented in his book John Knox and the Reformation (1905) aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the continental career of the Young Pretender in Pickle the Spy (1897), an account of Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy. This was followed by The Companions of Pickle (1898) and a monograph on Prince Charles Edward (1900). In 1900 he began a History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation (1900). The Valet's Tragedy (1903), which takes its title from an essay on Dumas's Man in the Iron Mask, collects twelve papers on historical mysteries, and A Monk of Fife (1896) is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by a young Scot in France in 1429–1431.
Other writings Lang's earliest publication was a volume of metrical experiments, The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), and this was followed at intervals by other volumes of dainty verse: Ballades in Blue China (1880, enlarged edition, 1888); Ballads and Verses Vain (1884), selected by Mr Austin Dobson; Rhymes à la Mode (1884); Grass of Parnassus (1888); Ban and Arrière Ban (1894); and New Collected Rhymes (1905). His 1890 collection, Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody, contains letters combining characters from different sources, in what is now known as a crossover, including one based on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre—an early example of a published derivative work based on Austen. Project MUSE 76001
Lang was active as a journalist in various ways, ranging from sparkling "leaders" for the Daily News to miscellaneous articles for the Morning Post, and for many years he was literary editor of Longman's Magazine; no critic was in more request, whether for occasional articles and introductions to new editions or as editor of dainty reprints.
He edited The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (1896), and was responsible for the Life and Letters (1897) of JG Lockhart, and The Life, Letters and Diaries (1890) of Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh. Lang discussed literary subjects with the same humour and acidity that marked his criticism of fellow folklorists, in Books and Bookmen (1886), Letters to Dead Authors (1886), Letters on Literature (1889), etc.
Works
To 1884
St Leonards Magazine. 1863. This was a reprint of several articles that appeared in the St Leonards Magazine that Lang edited at St Andrews University. Includes the following Lang contributions: Pages 10–13, Dawgley Manor; A sentimental burlesque; Pages 25–26, Nugae Catulus; Pages 27–30, Popular Philosophies; pages 43–50 are Papers by Eminent Contributors, seven short parodies of which six are by Lang. The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872) The Odyssey of Homer Rendered into English Prose (1879) translator with Samuel Henry Butcher Aristotle's Politics Books I. III. IV. (VII.). The Text of Bekker. With an English translation by W. E. Bolland. Together with short introductory essays by A. Lang To page 106 are Lang's Essays, pp. 107–305 are the translation. Lang's essays without the translated text were later published as The Politics of Aristotle. Introductory Essays. 1886. The Folklore of France (1878) Specimens of a Translation of Theocritus. 1879. This was an advance issue of extracts from Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English prose XXXII Ballades in Blue China (1880) Oxford. Brief historical & descriptive notes (1880). The 1915 edition of this work was illustrated by painter George Francis Carline.Waters, Grant M.. Dictionary of British Artists, Working 1900–1950, (Eastbourne Fine Art, Eastbourne, 1975), p. 59 Theocritus Bion and Moschus. Rendered into English Prose with an Introductory Essay. 1880. Notes by Mr A. Lang on a collection of pictures by Mr J. E. Millais R.A. exhibited at the Fine Arts Society Rooms. 148 New Bond Street. 1881. The Library: with a chapter on modern illustrated books. 1881. The Black Thief. A new and original drama (Adapted from the Irish) in four acts. (1882) Helen of Troy, her life and translation. Done into rhyme from the Greek books. 1882. The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (1882) with William Aldington The Iliad of Homer, a prose translation (1883) with Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers Custom and Myth (1884) The Princess Nobody: A Tale of Fairyland (1884) Ballads and Verses Vain (1884) selected by Austin Dobson Rhymes à la Mode (1884) Much Darker Days. By A. Huge Longway. (1884) Household tales; their origin, diffusion, and relations to the higher myths. . Separate pre-publication issue of the "introduction" to Bohn's edition of Grimm's Household tales.
1885–1889 That Very Mab (1885) with May Kendall Books and Bookmen (1886) Letters to Dead Authors (1886) In the Wrong Paradise (1886) stories The Mark of Cain (1886) novel Lines on the inaugural meeting of the Shelley Society. Reprinted for private distribution from the Saturday Review of 13 March 1886 and edited by Thomas Wise (1886) La Mythologie Traduit de L'Anglais par Léon Léon Parmentier. Avec une préface par Charles Michel et des Additions de l'auteur. (1886) Never published as a complete book in English, although there was a Polish translation. The first 170 pages is a translation of the article in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica'. The rest is a combination of articles and material from 'Custom and Myth'. Almae matres (1887) He (1887 with Walter Herries Pollock) parody Aucassin and Nicolette (1887) Myth, Ritual and Religion (2 vols., 1887) Johnny Nut and the Golden Goose. Done into English from the French of Charles Deulin (1887) Grass of Parnassus. Rhymes old and new. (1888) Perrault's Popular Tales (1888) Gold of Fairnilee (1888) Pictures at Play or Dialogues of the Galleries (1888) with W. E. Henley Prince Prigio (1889) The Blue Fairy Book (1889) (illustrations by Henry J. Ford) Letters on Literature (1889) Lost Leaders (1889) Ode to Golf and Ballade of the Royal Game of Golf. Contribution to On the Links; being Golfing Stories by various hands (1889) The Dead Leman and other tales from the French (1889) translator with Paul Sylvester
1890–1899
The Red Fairy Book (1890)