Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang was the Scottish anthropologist, folklorist, and man of letters who collected, translated, and edited the coloured Fairy Books — Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, and on through twelve volumes — that introduced generations of children to folk tales from around the world. Born in Selkirk in 1844, he studied at Oxford and became one of the most productive writers of the Victorian era: novels, poetry, literary criticism, translations of Homer, and the fairy book series that remains his most lasting contribution. His work on mythology argued that folk tales and religious beliefs arise from similar impulses across cultures — a claim that influenced Frazer's Golden Bough. His aphorism on statistics — used like lamp posts, for support rather than illumination — is perhaps the most repeated sentence from any Victorian critic of quantitative argument.