Three Notelets on Shakespeare: I. Shakespeare in Germany, II. The Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, III. Was Shakespeare Ever a Soldier?

London, UK John Russell Smith , 1865. Hardcover First Edition [1865], unstated. Good+: Shows moderate use. light wear to extremities; moderate rubbing; there is a tear in the fabric at the middle of the backstrip, which has been carefully repaired; a split in the fabric along the upper rear edge of the backstrip has also been repaired; faint soiling to the exterior and some smudging and a couple of partially erased pencil prices to the endpapers. The binding remains square and secure; text clean. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 136pp. Rag-edged pages; tooled cloth panels and gilt titles at the backstrip. First Edition [1865], unstated. Hardback: No DJ 'as issued'. William John Thoms (1803 – 1885) was a British writer credited with coining the term "folklore" in 1846.[1] Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths, where he was a pioneer demographer. Thoms worked as an antiquary, and miscellaneous writer, for many years a clerk in the secretary's office of Chelsea Hospital. He was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and became secretary to the Camden Society in 1838. In 1845 he was appointed Clerk, and subsequently Deputy Librarian, to the House of Lords. He was the founder in 1849 of Notes and Queries, which for some years he also edited. Thoms is credited with inventing the word 'folklore' in an 1846 letter to the Athenaeum.[2] He invented this compound word to replace the various other terms used at the time, including "popular antiquities" or "popular literature". He was fond of the works of Jacob Grimm, which he considered remarkable.