ANDREW LANG DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1499, 23 July 1912, Page 7

ANDREW LANG DEAD.

A DISTINGUISHED.MAN OF ' LETTERS.'

By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright (lkc. July 22, 10.-10 p.m.) London, July 22. The death is announced of Mr. Andrew Lang-, the well-known Author and journalist, aged 08. A PROLIFIC OUTPUT. Andrew Lang's- death closes the career of- one of the most prolific writers who has jet been recorded on the roll of English men of letters. Ho was born at Eellurk on March 31, 1811, and was educated at Edinburgh Academy, at St. Andrew's UDiversity, and at Halliol, being elected icllow of Merlon College in 18U8. He adopted- literature as his profession from the beginning, and .quickly made his markin London journalism by his brightness, industry, and versatility. Without being n profound philosopher, or even a pro'tonnd critic of literature, lie was nevertheless eo essentially a book-lover that his light and graceful pen, to which he appears never to have given a holiday, was able to invest his subjects with a "charm and interest that made them agreeable to tho general public, and stimulating and retreslnng to his fellow-workers in 'he workshop of letters. The range of his interests, as a list of his writings will show, knew no boundaries or horizons, but the subjects nearest to his heart wero folklore and Scottish history. Throughout his life he was, naturally enough, engaged m controversies upon all manner of subjects, from ghosts-to mythology, old history to the passing events of the day. Of these engagements his most notablo was Ins share in the long debate with Professor Max Muller concerning the interpretation of mythology and folk-tales. He was liiade LL.D. of.St. A.ndrow's in 1885, and m IbBS was appointed Gilford Lecturer on JNatural Religion at that University A. complete list of Lang's published writings is probably impossible of compilation. At any rate, in a prefatory note to "Adventures Among Books" (1905) he is unable to assign the dote or even the place of publication of somo of the papers collected in that volume. So enormous was his output that during the late 'nineties it used jokingly to bo declared that Andrew Lung was merely the trodo name of a syndicate. He was as successful in poetrv as in his multifarious prose, and published several volumes of finished and graceful verse. Ho was especially successful in his ballads, but ho reached the heights of real poetry lit his sonnets. His best known sonnet is "Hie Odvssey": ■. ' I As ono that for a weary space has lain Lulled by the Song of Circe and her wine In gardens near tho pale of Prosorpine Whero that Aegean isle forgets tho main, And only tho low lutes of lovo complain, And only shadows of wan lovers pine, As such mi one were glad to know (ho brine Salt on his lip?, and the large air again,— So, gladly, from the songs of modern speech Men turn, and see l.lie stars, and feel tho free Shi-ill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers, And through the music of Hi© languid hours, They hear the ocean on the western ben-h The surgo and thunder of the Odyssey.

His volumes of vorso include "Ballads and Lyric? of Old Prance" (1872), "Ballads in Lino China" (1880), "Helen of Troy" 0832), "Ballads and Verses Vain" and ■Rhymes a la. Mode" (1884), /'Grass of Parnassus" (1S88), and "Ballads of Books" (1888). His chief prose publications are: "Custom and Myth," "Boots and Bookmen," "In the Wrong Paradise," "Letters to Dead Authors," "Myth, Ritual, and Religion," "Gold of Fairnilee," "Letters on Literature," "Lost Leaders," "Prince Prigio," "Life of Sir Stafford Northcofo," "How to Fail in Literature," "Old Friends," "Essays in Little," "The Library," "Prince Ricnrdo," "Homer ond the Epic," "Ban of. Arriore Ban," "Cock Lane, and Common Sense," "Life of Lockhnrt," "Translations of the Iliad aJul Odvssev," "The World's Desire," "The Making "of Religion," "Tho Homeric Hymns," "vi History of Scotland," "Prince Charles Edward," ".Magic and Religion," "Alfred Tennyson." "The Mystery of Mary Stuart," "The Dis.entnn.gle.rs," "The Valet's Tragedy," ".TOIIII Knox and the Reformation." In addition to this great catalogue of work. Andrew Lang published many other volumes, and countless contributions to periodical literature, in addition to editing the "Blue Fairy Book" and others of that series, and many editions of Engli-h classics. He was made an honorary Doctor of Letters In- the Oxford University oud a Follow of the rtoval British Academy in 1808.