WRITER

Joseph Jacobs

1854 - 1916

Photo of Joseph Jacobs

Icon of person Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian-born folklorist, literary critic and historian who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Born in Sydney to a Jewish family, his work went on to popularise some of the world's best known versions of English fairy tales including "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "The Three Little Pigs", "Jack the Giant Killer" and "The History of Tom Thumb". He published his English fairy tale collections English Fairy Tales in 1890 and More English Fairy Tales in 1893. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Joseph Jacobs has received more than 334,330 page views. His biography is available in 16 different languages on Wikipedia. Joseph Jacobs is the 5,436th most popular writer, the 243rd most popular biography from Australia and the 18th most popular Australian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 330k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 46.16

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 16

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.98

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.70

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Indian Fairy Tales
Fantasy, Fiction, Mythology
Twenty-nine traditional tales from India include "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal," "The Lion and the Crane," and "Why the Fish Laughed."
1892
The Story of Geographical Discovery
Discoveries in geography, Historical geography, Découvertes géographiques
1898
More English fairy tales
Juvenile literature, Folk literature, English, English Folk literature
Forty-four lesser known tales collected from English folklore, including Yallery Brown, Tom Hickathrift, Scrapefoot, A. Pottle O'Brains, Tamlane, and Tabetrot and Scantie Mab.
1894
Fables
Fables, Greek Fables, Translations from Greek
The world's oldest known collection of fables and folk tales. Some of the stories credited to Aesop, a Greek slave who lived in about the sixth century BCE, are known in every corner of the globe, such as 'The Tortoise and the Hare' and 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'. Other familiar tales are 'The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs', 'The Fox and the Grapes' and ''The Ant and the Grasshopper'.
1489
Celtic Fairy Tales
Juvenile literature, Irish Folk literature, Fiction
Twenty-six enchanting tales of Celtic Magic and Legend collected by Joseph Jacobs. Over 50 illustrations. A must have treasury for those interested in Celtic Mythology.
1892
English Fairy Tales
Fairy tales, Juvenile Fiction, Fiction
From the book:Who says that English folk have no fairy-tales of their own? The present volume contains only a selection out of some 140, of which I have found traces in this country. It is probable that many more exist. A quarter of the tales in this volume, have been collected during the last ten years or so, and some of them have not been hitherto published. Up to 1870 it was equally said of France and of Italy, that they possessed no folk-tales. Yet, within fifteen years from that date, over 1000 tales had been collected in each country. I am hoping that the present volume may lead to equal activity in this country, and would earnestly beg any reader of this book who knows of similar tales, to communicate them, written down as they are told, to me, care of Mr. Nutt. The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been brought to light, is the lamentable gap between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country - dumb to others but eloquent among themselves. It would be no unpatriotic task to help to bridge over this gulf, by giving a common fund of nursery literature to all classes of the English people, and, in any case, it can do no harm to add to the innocent gaiety of the nation.
1890

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Joseph Jacobs ranks 5,436 out of 7,302. Before him are Amelia Opie, Bill O'Reilly, Madeline Miller, Dan Houser, Tomás António Gonzaga, and Isabel Briggs Myers. After him are Richard Hoggart, Jan Lechoń, Christopher Paolini, Scott O'Dell, Ádám Bodor, and Aquilino Ribeiro.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1854, Joseph Jacobs ranks 111. Before him are Giuseppe Veronese, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Gottlieb Haberlandt, Heinrich Kreutz, Hermann Oldenberg, and Clorinda Matto de Turner. After him are Francis Marion Crawford, William C. Gorgas, Dukinfield Henry Scott, Ernest Belfort Bax, Rafael López Gutiérrez, and Jan Sztolcman. Among people deceased in 1916, Joseph Jacobs ranks 136. Before him are Alexander Voeikov, Alfred Cogniaux, Gorch Fock, Guido Romano, Lorenzo Latorre, and Mary Everest Boole. After him are Daniel Oliver, Aeneas Mackintosh, Oskar Gripenberg, Guido Gozzano, Hermann Martens, and Béla Békessy.

Others Born in 1854

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Others Deceased in 1916

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In Australia

Among people born in Australia, Joseph Jacobs ranks 243 out of 1,143. Before him are Trudi Canavan (1969), Harry Hopman (1906), Lauren Jackson (1981), Peter Garrett (1953), Fleur Mellor (1936), and Richard Bonynge (1930). After him are Patricia Wrightson (1921), David Malet Armstrong (1926), Adrian Quist (1913), Judy Amoore (1940), Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920), and Stanley Bruce (1883).

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Among WRITERS In Australia

Among writers born in Australia, Joseph Jacobs ranks 18. Before him are John Flanagan (1944), Joan Lindsay (1896), Gregory David Roberts (1952), Peter Carey (1943), Greg Egan (1961), and Trudi Canavan (1969). After him are Patricia Wrightson (1921), Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920), Markus Zusak (1975), Henry Lawson (1867), Robert Hughes (1938), and Kate Morton (1976).

Australian born Writers

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