23 Facts About Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology.

Andrew Lang is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales.

Andrew Lang 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.

Andrew Lang 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.

Andrew Lang soon made a reputation as one of the most able and versatile writers of the day as a journalist, poet, critic, and historian.

Andrew Lang 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.

Andrew Lang died of angina pectoris on 20 July 1912 at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel in Banchory, Banchory, survived by his wife.

Andrew Lang was buried in the cathedral precincts at St Andrews, where a monument can be visited in the southeast corner of the 19th-century section.

Andrew 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.

Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book was an illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic.

Andrew Lang examined the origins of totemism in Social Origins.

Andrew Lang was one of the founders of "psychical research" and his other writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, Magic and Religion and The Secret of the Totem.

Andrew Lang served as president of the Society for Psychical Research in 1911.

Andrew Lang extensively cited nineteenth- and twentieth-century European spiritualism to challenge the idea of his teacher, Tylor, that belief in spirits and animism were inherently irrational.

Andrew 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.

Andrew Lang wrote monographs on The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart and James VI and the Gowrie Mystery.

Andrew Lang gave new information about the continental career of the Young Pretender in Pickle the Spy, an account of Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy.

Andrew Lang's earliest publication was a volume of metrical experiments, The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France, and this was followed at intervals by other volumes of dainty verse: Ballades in Blue China ; Ballads and Verses Vain, selected by Mr Austin Dobson; Rhymes a la Mode ; Grass of Parnassus ; Ban and Arriere Ban ; and New Collected Rhymes.

Andrew 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.

Andrew Lang edited The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, and was responsible for the Life and Letters of JG Lockhart, and The Life, Letters and Diaries of Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh.

Andrew Lang discussed literary subjects with the same humour and acidity that marked his criticism of fellow folklorists, in Books and Bookmen, Letters to Dead Authors, Letters on Literature, etc.

Andrew Lang selected and edited 25 collections of stories that were published annually, beginning with The Blue Fairy Book in 1889 and ending with The Strange Story Book in 1913.