Joseph Jacobs

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

Joseph Jacobs
Born	(1854-08-29)29 August 1854 Sydney, Australia
Died	30 January 1916(1916-01-30) (aged 61) Yonkers, United States
Occupation(s)	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 Encyclopedia, 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. He was the sixth surviving son of John Jacobs, a publican who had emigrated from London c.1837, and his wife Sarah, née Myers. 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. He graduated with a B.A. in 1876, and in 1877, studied at the University of Berlin.

Jacobs married Georgina Horne and fathered two sons and a daughter. In 1900, he accepted an invitation to become revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, which was then being prepared at New York, and settled permanently in the United States.

He died on 30 January 1916

Career

Jacobs 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 the 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, which published in 1891 the collection, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Browning, Newman, Essays and Reviews from the Athenaeum. 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, an 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 Encyclopedia, which was then being prepared at New York. He settled permanently in the United States, where he wrote many articles for the Jewish Encyclopedia, and was generally responsible for the style of the whole publication. It was completed in 1906.

He then became registrar and professor of English at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 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.

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 Encyclopædia Britannica, and James Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

Folklore

An illustration of the fairy tale A Legend of Knockmany, created by John D. Batten for Joseph Jacob's collection Celtic Fairy Tales

From 1899-1900 he edited the journal Folklore, and from 1890 to 1916 he edited multiple collections of fairy tales - English Fairy Tales (1890), Celtic Fairy Tales (1892 anthology), More Celtic Fairy Tales (1894), More English Fairy Tales (1894), Indian Fairy Tales (1912), European Folk and Fairy Tales (also known as Europa's Fairy Book) (1916) - 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; 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 (in English Fairy Tales) and Tamlane (in More English Fairy Tales) are prose versions of ballads, The Old Woman and Her Pig (in English Fairy Tales) is a nursery rhyme, Henny-Penny (in English Fairy Tales)is a fable, and The Buried Moon (in More English Fairy Tales) 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."

Works

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

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• • 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

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• • 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

• Celtic Fairy Tales (1892)

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• • 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

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• • 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

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

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**The Pied Piper of Franchville

• • Hereafterthis
  • The Golden Ball
  • My Own Self
  • The 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

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• • 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

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

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• • 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

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• • 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)

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• • 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

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• • 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 (also known as Europa's Fairy Book) (1916)

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• • 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

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• • 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

• Serle, Percival (1949). "Jacobs, Joseph". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 16 August 2009.

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)
• Works by Joseph Jacobs at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)