Studio of Asahel Curtis · Public domain

An Australian-born folklorist who became one of the most widely read collectors of fairy tales in the English language, popularizing enduring versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," and "The Three Little Pigs" through his English Fairy Tales collections of the 1890s. Beyond English folklore he also compiled Jewish, Celtic, and Indian tales and edited The Thousand and One Nights, and he contributed extensively to The Jewish Encyclopedia. He edited the journal of The Folklore Society and was regarded in his lifetime as among the foremost authorities on English folklore.