03/18/2026
Spill the Tea with RBSCP! 🧚🏻 🫖
This month, RBSCP’s stacks manager, Ali Wilkie, presents the unsung women editors of Andrew Lang’s The Violet Fairy Book, edited in 1901, in which we hold a first edition copy. Andrew Lang’s Coloured Fairy Books are a collection of twelve volumes containing fairytales from across the globe created by Andrew and Leonora Blanche Lang. Upon their publication, the volumes became the first major anthology of fairy tales to include stories from a large variety of sources, including many tales printed in English for the first time. However, despite the volumes being a collaborative effort between Andrew Lang, Nora Lang, and a larger group of women editors, it is Andrew Lang alone who often receives the sole credit for the anthology.
The Violet Fairy Book contains thirty-five fairy tales from the folklore of Portugal, Romania, Germany, Italy, Africa, Scandinavia, Russia, Serbia, and Japan. Nora and a team of up to seventeen women translators took over the bulk of the work, translating the tales from their original languages. A prolific feat! Her first credited collaboration, where she was named in the preface written by Andrew, can be seen in the third volume of the series, The Green Fairy Book. In the volumes published between 1908 and 1912, she received full publishing credit on the title page. Mr. Lang writes in the preface of The Lilac Fairy Book, “My part has been that of Adam, according to Mark Twain, in the Garden of Eden. Eve worked, Adam superintended. I also superintend. I find out where the stories are, and advise, and, in short, superintend.”, describing Nora’s achievements. Visit RBSCP to learn more!
Interested in highlighting a piece of our collection over tea and treats? Email our director, Eric Ensley, at [email protected]! ✨
