William Elliot Griffis
Born in Philadelphia in 1843, author William Elliot Griffis was an extremely prolific author and published several books of fairy tales in the 1900’s. An active minister in the United States in the 1800’s, he worked in several churches in Boston and New York, before retiring from ministry in 1903 to write and lecture. His extensive bibliography includes works about Japanese culture and heritage, and he helped author Inazo Nitobe write the renowned Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
As author and professor, his many trips to Europe, and especially the Netherlands, helped shape his appreciation of European cultures. Over the years, he would go on to publish collections of folklore from across the world, with titles such as Japanese Fairy World: Thirty-five Stories from the Wonderlore of Japan, The Firefly’s Lovers and Other Fairy Tales of Old Japan, Belgian Fairy Tales, Swiss Fairy Tales, Welsh Fairy Tales, Korean Fairy Tales and Japanese Fairy Tales. Although he isn’t as well known as Hans Christian Anderson, Griffis indeed contributed much to the world of folklore. He also received two Japanese orders (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon) and (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette), plus helped establish the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Historical Association, and the U.S. Naval Academy, according to his obituary from the New York Times. He died in Florida in 1928.
Fairy tales by William Elliot Griffis
- A Bridegroom for Miss Mole
- The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese
- The Boar with the Golden Bristles
- Brabo and the Giant
- The Child of Thunder
- The Creation of Heaven and the Earth
- The Cat and the Cradle
- The Curly-Tailed Lion
- East Light and the Bridge of Fishes
- The Earthquake Fish
- The Entangled Mermaid
- The Elves and Their Antics
- The Fire-Fly's Lovers
- The Fox and the Badger
- The Fairy in the Cuckoo Clock
- The Farm That Ran Away and Came Back
- Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea
- The Princess With Twenty Petticoats
- Prince Spin Head and Miss Snow White
- Pigling and Her Proud Sister
- The Water of Yoro or the Fountain of Youth
- Watanabe Cuts Off the Oni's Arm
- The Woman with Three Hundred and Sixty-Six Children
- When Wheat Worked Woe
- Why the Stork Loves Holland
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