Portrait of John Gregorson Campbell
Photo: Lord Archibald Campbell, published in 1895 · Wikimedia Commons

Author

John Gregorson Campbell

Scottish minister and folklorist

Born
1836, Argyll
Died
November 22, 1891
Occupation
Translator, children's writer, collector of fairy tales, folklorist and parson

Life and work

John Gregorson Campbell (1836 – 22 November 1891) was a Scottish folklorist and Free Church minister at the Tiree and Coll parishes in Argyll, Scotland. An avid collector of traditional stories, he became Secretary to the Ossianic Society of Glasgow University in the mid-1850s. Ill health had prevented him taking up employment as a Minister when he was initially approved to preach by the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1858 and later after he was appointed to Tiree by the Duke of Argyll in 1861, parishioners objected to his manner of preaching.

Several of the anecdotes he amassed were published in magazines and, just before his death, work began on collating the first of four compendiums of the tales; three were published a few years after his death. He was fluent in several languages, including Scottish Gaelic, and transcribed the legends precisely as dictated by the narrators.

Text: “John Gregorson Campbell”, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, under the license CC BY-SA 4.0. Dates and facts: Wikidata.

Collection

Books by John Gregorson Campbell

2 books