Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang, (born March 31, 1844, Selkirk, Selkirkshire, Scot.--died July 20, 1912, Banchory, Aberdeenshire), Scottish scholar and man of letters noted for his collections of fairy tales and translations of Homer. Educated at St. Andrews University and at Balliol College, Oxford, he held an open fellowship at Merton College until 1875, when he moved to London. He quickly became famous for his critical articles in The Daily News and other papers. He displayed talent as a poet in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), Helen of Troy (1882), and Grass of Parnassus (1888) and as a novelist with The Mark of Cain (1886) and The Disentanglers (1902). He earned special praise for his 12-volume collection of fairy tales, the first volume of which was The Blue Fairy Book (1889) and the last The Lilac Fairy Book (1910). His own fairy tales, The Gold of Fairnilee (1888), Prince Prigio (1889), and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia (1893) became children's classics. Lang also did important pioneer work in such volumes as Custom and Myth (1884) and Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887). Later he turned to history and historical mysteries, notably Pickle the Spy (1897), A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, 4 vol. (1900-07), Historical Mysteries (1904), and The Maid of France (1908). His lifelong devotion to Homer produced well-known prose translations of the Odyssey (1879), in collaboration with S. H. Butcher, and of the Iliad (1883), with Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers. He defended the theory of the unity of Homeric literature, and his World of Homer (1910) is an important study. (wikipedia.org)

Il tait une fois, un roi vivant dans une certaine contr e et dont le palais est entour d'un vaste jardin. Mais, bien que les jardiniers soient nombreux et que le sol soit riche, ce grandiose jardin n'a donn ni fleurs ni fruits, pas m me de l'herbe ou des arbres ombrag s. Once upon a time in a certain country there lived a king whose palace was surrounded by a spacious garden. But, though the gardeners were many and the soil was good, this garden yielded neither flowers nor fruits, not even grass or shady trees. Le roi est au d sespoir et ne comprend pas ce myst re. C'est alors qu'un beau jour, un vieil homme sage lui dit: The King was in despair about it, when a wise old man said to him: - Vos jardiniers ne comprennent pas leurs m tiers: que pouvez-vous attendre d'hommes dont les p res taient cordonniers et menuisiers ? Comment auraient-ils pu apprendre cultiver votre jardin ?- Your gardeners do not understand their business: but what can you expect of men whose fathers were cobblers and carpenters? How should they have learned to cultivate your garden?- Vous avez raison s' cria le roi.- You are quite right, cried the King.- Par cons quent, continua le vieil homme, vous devez engager un jardinier dont le p re et le grand-p re ont t jardiniers avant lui et tr s bient t votre jardin sera verdoyant et des fleurs aux gaies couleurs pousseront et l , et vous appr cierez les fruits d licieux qui pousseront d sormais.- Therefore, continued the old man, you should send for a gardener whose father and grandfather have been gardeners before him, and very soon your garden will be full of green grass and gay flowers, and you will enjoy its delicious fruit. Alors le roi envoya des messagers chaque ville, village et hameau afin de trouver un jardinier dont les anc tres avaient t jardiniers aussi. Apr s quarante jours, ce dernier fut trouv . So the King sent messengers to every town, village, and hamlet in his dominions, to look for a gardener whose forefathers had been gardeners also, and after forty days one was found.- Venez avec nous et devenez jardinier du roi, lui demand rent les messagers du roi.- Come with us and be gardener to the King, they said to him.- Comment puis-je me pr senter au roi, d clara le jardinier ? Un pauvre h re comme moi? - How can I go to the King, said the gardener, a poor wretch like me?

Andrew Lang, FBA 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.

A parody of H. Rider Haggard's "She."

Tommy McRae (c.1835-1901) was an Aboriginal artist who lived in the Upper Murray district of Australia. McRae was a Wahgunyah man of the Kwatkwat people, whose country stretched from south of the Murray River to near the junction of the Goulburn and Murray rivers in Victoria........ Andrew Lang, FBA (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........... Catherine Eliza Somerville Stow (1 May 1856 - 27 March 1940), who wrote as K. Langloh Parker, was a South Australian born writer who lived in northern New South Wales in the late nineteenth century. She is best known for recording the stories of the Ualarai around her. Her testimony is one of the best accounts of the beliefs and stories of an Aboriginal people in north-west New South Wales at that time. However, her accounts reflect European attitudes of the time. Early life: Parker was born Catherine Eliza Somerville Field at Encounter Bay, in South Australia, daughter of Henry Field, pastoralist, and his wife Sophia, daughter of Rev. Ridgway Newland. Henry Field established Marra station near Wilcannia on the Darling River in New South Wales, and 'Katie' was raised there. The relocation brought the family both prosperity and sorrows. In an incident that took place in January 1862, her sisters Jane and Henrietta drowned while Katie was rescued by her Ualarai nurse, Miola. In recognition, Miola was taken in to be schooled together with the Field's other children. The family moved back to Adelaide in 1872. Marriage: In 1875, on reaching her maturity at 18, she married her first husband, Langloh Parker, 16 years her senior. In 1879 they and moved to his property, Bangate Station, near Angledool, on Ualarai lands by the Narran River. Langloh Parker's holdings consisted of 215,000 acres running some 100,000 sheep and cattle. He found time also to work as magistrate at Walgett. Over the following two decades she collected many of the Ualarai stories and legends which were to fill her books and make her famous. After drought struck the region, the station eventually failed and the Parkers moved to Sydney in 1901, where Langloh was diagnosed with cancer, dying two years later. Hatie travelled to England and married a lawyer, Percival Randolph Stow (son of Randolph Isham Stow), in 1905. The couple eventually returned to Australia, taking up residence in the suburb of Glenelg in Adelaide until her death in 1940............

In writing this brief sketch of the Life of Tennyson, and this attempt to appreciate his work, I have rested almost entirely on the Biography by Lord Tennyson (with his kind permission) and on the text of the Poems. As to the Life, doubtless current anecdotes, not given in the Biography, are known to me, and to most people. But as they must also be familiar to the author of the Biography, I have not thought it desirable to include what he rejected.