the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Francis James Child
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or The Language of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales," which did much to establish Chaucerian grammar, pronunciation and scansion as now generally understood. His largest undertaking, however, grew out of an original collection, in his British Poets series, of English and Scottish Ballads, selected and edited by himself, in eight small volumes (Boston, 1857-1858). Thenceforward the leisure of his life - much increased by his transfer, in 1876, to the new professorship of English - was devoted to the comparative study of British vernacular ballads. He accumulated, in the university library, one of the largest folklore collections in existence, studied manuscript rather than printed sources, and carried his investigations into the ballads of all other tongues, meanwhile giving a sedulous but conservative hearing to popular versions still surviving. At last his final collection was published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, at first in ten parts (1882-1898), and then in five quarto volumes, which remain the authoritative treasury of their subject. Professor Child worked - and overworked - to the last, dying in Boston on the 11th of September 1896, having completed his task save for a general introduction and bibliography. A sympathetic biographical sketch was prefixed to the work by his pupil and successor George L. Kittredge.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Francis James Child'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/f/francis-james-child.html. 1910.
