Lang, Andrew

From Encyclopediak

Lang, Andrew 1844-1912, a British poet, story-writer and essayist, born in Scotland. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School, a college connected with the University of St. Andrews, and at Balliol College, Oxford. He devoted himself at college to the study of classical and British literature, and in 1872 published his first volume, Ballads and Lyrics of Old France, the beginning of a long and varied literary career. His ability as a keen and discriminating critic and his wide range of reading are revealed in his Letters to Dead Authors, and his scholarship and versatility, in his translations of Homer, Theocritus, Balzac, Tolstoy and others. He was greatly interested in folk lore, a field of knowledge to which he made important contributions, and an ardent lover of ghosts and fairy tales. Among his most charming volumes are his series of fairy stories. Other fields in which he gained renown are history, biography, journalism and anthropology.