Celtic Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs was a Jewish historian and leading folklorist whose special passion was fairy tales. He was born in Australia and attended the University of Sydney where he won a scholarship for classics, mathematics, and chemistry. He completed his studies at St. John's College, Cambridge. He eventually came to prominence as the writer of a series of articles in The Times on the persecution of Jews in Russia. Between 1882 and 1900 he gave much time to anthropological studies in connection with the Jewish race, and became an authority on the subject. But his interests were varied. From 1899 to 1900 he edited the journal Folklore, and from 1890 to 1912 he edited five collections of fairy tales. In 1906 he moved to New York and became registrar and professor of English at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He died in January 1916.