Edgar Taylor (author)
Edgar Taylor (28 January 1793– 19 August 1839) was a British solicitor and author of legal, historical, literary works and translations. He was the first translator of "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, into English, as "German Popular Stories" in 1823. In 1826 he translated the second volume (1814) of the "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" . Life. He was the fifth son of Samuel Taylor, who was a grandson of John Taylor, born at Banham, Norfolk, on 28 January 1793. He was at school at Palgrave under Charles Lloyd. In 1809 he was articled to  his uncle, Meadows Taylor, a solicitor of Diss, Norfolk. He had mastered Italian and Spanish before coming to London in 1814; subsequently he learnt German and French. In 1817, with Robert Roscoe, a son of William Roscoe, Taylor set up the firm of Taylor & Roscoe, solicitors, in King's Bench Walk, Inner Temple. His legal career prospered, mainly in equity practice, was prosperous. Contracting in 1827 an incurable disease, he was compelled (from 1832) to give up much of his professional work. After long suffering, Taylor died at Bedford Row, London on 19 August 1839, and was buried in Highgate  cemetery. Nonconformist. Taylor was an original member of the "Noncon Club", founded in July 1817 by Robert Aspland to advance religious freedom, and co-operated with Aspland in ecclesiastical politics, working for the legal recognition of the rights of nonconformists. As a dissenting deputy he took part in the movement for repeal (1828) of the Test and Corporation Acts; in 1837 he was appointed a commissioner (unpaid) for carrying out the Dissenters' Marriage Act. Works. During 1823–6 Taylor's (anonymous) translations from the "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were published as "German Popular Stories", with illustrations by  George Cruikshank. Taylor wrote to the Grimms that he created the translations with 'the amusement of some young friends principally in view'. A second edition, entitled "Gammer Grethel, or German Fairy Tales and Popular Stories", appeared in 1839. It had illustrations by Cruikshank and Ludwig Emil Grimm. Jack Zipes regards Taylor's translations as representative of a more general movement gathering support in the 1820s, and tending to separate the fantasy elements of fairy tales from cruelty and bawdy, with the addition of Christian teaching. Taylor's English edition was more popular than the Grimms' first edition, which was more  scholarly. "The popularity of "German Popular Stories" helped to make fairy tales an acceptable form of children's literature in England, according to Jan Susina. Among Taylor's other publications were: Posthumous were: Taylor wrote in "The Jurist", "Legal Observer", "Retrospective Review", "Westminster Review", and "Morning Chronicle". Among his contributions to the "Monthly Repository" were a "Memoir" (1819) of Johann Jakob Wettstein, the biblical critic; and "Observations on Mahometanism" (1820). Family. Taylor married, in 1823, Ann, daughter of John Christie of Hackney, who survived him, with an only daughter. External links. Attribution