Joseph Jacobs

For other people named Joseph Jacobs, see Joseph Jacobs (disambiguation).

Joseph Jacobs
Born	August 29, 1854(1854-08-29) Australia
Died	January 30, 1916(1916-01-30) (aged 61) United States
Occupation	Folklorist, critic, historian

Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature. Jacobs wrote for journals and books on the subject of folklore and produced a popular series of fairy tales.

Biography

Jacobs was born in Australia, sixth surviving son of John Jacobs, a publican who had emigrated from London c.1837, and his wife Sarah, née Myers.^[1] Jacobs was educated at Sydney Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he won a scholarship for classics, mathematics and chemistry. He did not complete his studies in Sydney, but left for England at the age of 18 and entered St John's College, Cambridge.^[2] He graduated B.A. in 1876, and in 1877 studied at the University of Berlin. He was secretary of the Society of Hebrew Literature from 1878 to 1884, and in 1882 came into prominence as the writer of a series of articles in The Times on the persecution of Jews in Russia. This led to the formation of the mansion house fund and committee, of which Jacobs was secretary from 1882 to 1900.

In 1888 he prepared with Lucien Wolf Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica: A Bibliographical Guide to Anglo-Jewish History, and in 1890 he edited English Fairy Tales, the first of his series of books of fairy tales published during the next 10 years. He wrote many literary articles for the Athenaeum, a collection of which, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Browning, Newman, Essays and Reviews from the Athenaeum was published in 1891. In the same year appeared his Studies in Jewish Statistics, in 1892, Tennyson and "In Memoriam", and in 1893 his important book on The Jews of Angevin England. In 1894 were published his Studies in Biblical archaeology, and An Inquiry into the Sources of the History of the Jews in Spain, in connection with which he was made a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid. His As Others Saw Him, a historical novel dealing with the life of Christ, was published anonymously in 1895, and in the following year his Jewish Ideals and other Essays came out. In this year he was invited to the United States of America to give a course of lectures on the "Philosophy of Jewish History". The Story of Geographical Discovery was published towards the end of 1898 and ran into several editions. He had been compiling and editing the Jewish Year Book since 1896, and was president of the Jewish Historical Society of England in 1898-9. In 1900 he accepted an invitation to become revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopaedia which was then being prepared at New York.

Folklore

From 1899-1900 he edited the journal Folklore, and from 1890 to 1912 he edited five collections of fairy tales: English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, More Celtic Fairy Tales, and European Folk and Fairy Tales, which were published with distinguished illustrations by John Dickson Batten. He was inspired in this by the Brothers Grimm and the romantic nationalism common in folklorists of his age; he wished English children to have access to English fairy tales, whereas they were chiefly reading French and German tales;^[3] in his own words, "What Perrault began, the Grimms completed."

Although he collected many tales under the name of fairy tales, many of them are unusual sorts of tales. Binnorie and Tamlane are prose versions of ballads, The Old Woman and Her Pig is a nursery rhyme, Henny-Penny is a fable, and The Buried Moon has mythic overtones to an extent unusual in fairy tales. According to his own analysis of English Fairy Tales, "Of the eighty-seven tales contained in my two volumes, thirty-eight are Märchen proper, ten sagas or legends, nineteen drolls, four cumulative stories, six beast tales, and ten nonsense stories."^[4]

Jacobs settled permanently in the United States. He wrote many articles for the Jewish Encyclopaedia, and was generally responsible for the style of the whole publication. It was completed in 1906, and he then became registrar and professor of English at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at New York. In 1908 he was appointed a member of the board of seven, which made a new English translation of the Bible for the Jewish Publication Society of America. In 1913 he resigned his positions at the seminary to become editor of the American Hebrew. He died on 30 January 1916. He married Georgina Horne and fathered two sons and a daughter. In 1920, Book I of his Jewish Contributions to Civilization, which was practically finished at the time of his death, was published at Philadelphia.

In addition to the books already mentioned, Jacobs edited The Fables of Aesop as First Printed by Caxton (1889), Painter's Palace of Pleasure (1890), Baltaser Gracian's Art of Worldly Wisdom (1892), Howell's Letters (1892), Barlaam and Josaphat (1896), The Thousand and One Nights (6 vols, 1896), and others. Jacobs was also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and James Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

Works

• Earliest English Version of the Fables of Bidpai (1888)
• Celtic Fairy Tales (1892 anthology)
• Fables of Aesop (1889)
• English Fairy Tales (1890), which includes:

Tom Tit Tot The Three Sillies The Rose-Tree The Old Woman and Her Pig How Jack Went to Seek his Fortune Mr Vinegar Nix Nought Nothing Jack Hannaford Binnorie Mouse and Mouser Cap O' Rushes Teeny-Tiny Jack and the Beanstalk The Story of the Three Little Pigs The Master and His Pupil Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box The Story of the Three Bears Jack the Giant Killer Henny-Penny Childe Rowland

Molly Whuppie The Red Ettin The Golden Arm The History of Tom Thumb Mr Fox Lazy Jack Johnny-Cake Earl Mar's Daughter Mr Miacca Whittington and His Cat The Strange Visitor The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh The Cat and the Mouse The Fish and the Ring The Magpie's Nest Kate Crackernuts The Cauld Lad of Hilton The Ass, The Table and the Stick Fairy Ointment The Well of the World's End Master of all Masters The Three Heads of the Well

• The Jews of Angevin England (1893)
• More English Fairy Tales (1894)

Hereafterthis The Golden Ball My Own Self Black Bull of Norroway Yallery Brown Three Feathers Sir Gammer Vans Tom Hickathrift The Hedley Kow Gobborn Seer Lawkamercyme Tattercoats The Wee Bannock Johnny Gloke Coat o' Clay The Three Cows The Blinded Giant Scrapefoot The Pedlar of Swaffham The Old Witch The Three Wishes The Buried Moon

A Son of Adam The Children in the Wood The Hobyahs A Pottle o' Brains The King of England and his Three Sons King John and the Abbot of Canterbury Rushen Coatie The King o' the Cats Tamlane The Stars in the Sky News! Puddock, Mousie and Ratton The Little Bull-Calf The Wee, Wee Mannie Habetrot and Scantlie Mab Old Mother Wiggle-Waggle Catskin Stupid's Cries The Lambton Worm The Wise Men of Gotham Princess of Canterbury

• Celtic Fairy Tales (1892)

Connla and the Fairy Maiden Guleesh The Field of Boliauns The Horned Women Conall Yellowclaw Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary The Shepherd of Myddvai The Sprightly Tailor The Story of Deirdre Munachar and Manachar Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree King O'Toole and his Goose The Wooing of Olwen Jack and his Comrades

The Shee An Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire The Story-Teller at Fault The Sea-Maiden A Legend of Knockmany Fair, Brown and Trembling Jack and his Master Beth Gellert The Tale of Ivan Andrew Coffey The Battle of the Birds Brewery of Eggshells The Lad with the Goat-Skin Notes and References

• Studies in Biblical Archaeology (1894)
• More Celtic Fairy Tales (1894)

The Fate of the Children of Lir Jack the Cunning Thief Powel, Prince of Dyfed Paddy O'Kelly and the Weasel The Black Horse The Vision of MacConglinney Dream of Owen O'Mulready Morraha The Story of the McAndrew Family The Farmer of Liddesdale The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener

The Russet Dog Smallhead and the King's Sons The Legend of Knockgrafton Elidore The Leeching of Kayn's leg How Fin went to the Kingdom of the Big Men How Cormac Mac Art went to Faery The Ridere of Riddles The Tail

• Contributor to the Jewish Encyclopedia, from 1900
• Indian Fairy Tales (1912)

The Lion and the Crane How the Raja's Son won the Princess Labam The Lambikin Punchkin The Broken Pot The Magic Fiddle The Cruel Crane Outwitted Loving Laili The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal The Soothsayers Son Harisarman The Charmed Ring The Talkative Tortoise A Lac of Rupees for a Piece of Advice

The Gold-Giving Serpent The Son of Seven Queens A Lesson for Kings Pride Goes Before a Fall Raja Rasalu The Ass in the Lion's Skin The Farmer and the Money-Lender The Boy who had a Moon on his Forehead and a Star on his Chin The Prince and the Fakir Why the Fish Laughed The Demon with the Matted Hair The Ivory City and its Fairy Princess Sun, Moon, and Wind go out to Dinner How the Wicked Sons were Duped The Pigeon and the Crow

• European Folk and Fairy Tales (1916)

Cinder-Maid All Change The King of the Fishes Scissors Beauty and the Beast Reynard and Bruin The Dancing Water, Singing Apple, and Speaking Bird The Language of Animals The Three Soldiers A Dozen At a Blow The Earl of Cattenborough The Swan Maidens Androcles and the Lion

Day Dreaming Keep Cool The Master Thief The Unseen Bridegroom The Master-Maid A Visitor From Paradise Inside Again John the True Johnnie and Grizzle The Clever Lass Thumbkin Snowwhite

References

1. ^ G. F. J. Bergman, 'Jacobs, Joseph (1854 - 1916)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, MUP, 1983, pp 460-461. Retrieved 2009-08-16
2. ^ Jacobs, Joseph in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
3. ^ Maria Tatar, p 345-5, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
4. ^ Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, "Notes and References"

• Serle, Percival (1949). "Jacobs, Joseph". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogI-K.html#jacobs1. Retrieved 2009-08-16. 

External links

• Works by Joseph Jacobs at Project Gutenberg
• works by Joseph Jacobs at The Baldwin Online Children's Project
• Joseph Jacobs at SurLaLune Fairy Tale Site
• The Earliest English Version (1570) of the Fables of Bidpai (reprint of Sir Thomas North's The Morall Philosophie of Doni, edited and induced by Joseph Jacobs, London 1888)

Persondata
Name	Jacobs, Joseph
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 August 1854
Place of birth	Australia
Date of death	30 January 1916
Place of death	United States