Andrew Lang was born at Selkirk in Scotland on March 31, 1844. He was a historian, poet, novelist, journalist, translator, and anthropologist, in connection with his work on literary texts. He was one of the most important collectors of folk and fairy tales. A prolific author, Lang published more than 100 works during his career. His collections of Fairy books preserved and handed down many of the better-known folk tales from the time and influenced J. R. R. Tolkien’s writing.