Joseph Jacobs’ Celtic, More Celtic, and European Folk and Fairy Tales, Batten

Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was a British-Jewish folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian, and writer of English literature who was born in New South Wales. He became a well-known collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacobs was brought up in a Jewish household in Sydney. His writings went on to promote variations of English fairy stories like "Jack as well as the Beanstalk," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "The Three Little Pigs," "Jack the Great Killer," or the "History of Tom Thumb." He published a pair of collections of English fairy tales, titled English Fairy Tales in 1890 and More English Fairy Stories in 1893, but he also published fairy tales collected from continental Europe, as well as Jewish, Celtic, and Indian fairytales, making him one of the most popular writers of fairytales for the English language.

For untold generations in countless Irish cottages, in front of peat-fueled fires, some of the gayest, most fanciful, and most sparkling folk tales that ever caused young eyes to grow brighter and young hearts to beat faster have been and still are told.