1st Edition
Silver Magic The World’s Best Fairy Tales Collected and Arranged by Romer Wilson
With a Preface and biographies from Jack Zipes, as well as the original illustrations by Violet Brunton, this collection of fairy tales originally published by the award-winning Romer Wilson – Green Magic (1928), Silver Magic (1929), and Red Magic (1930) – offers a combination of classic fairy tales, alongside lesser known, global and diverse tales.
Silver Magic contains classic fairy tales including “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and Hawthorne’s “The Miraculous Pitcher,” as well as several anonymous and previously undiscovered tales such as “Lohengrin.” It was Romer Wilson’s intention to combine the familiar with the unknown, and to introduce authors and cultures from a variety of countries. As a researcher, Wilson uncovered a remarkable amount of stories from other countries that remain unknown today. This collection gives voice to unique and intriguing tales that inspire children to have a better understanding of how people and their stories are alike despite major differences.
Through his Preface and commentary, Jack Zipes shows how all three books are a means to bring people together in the name of peace and justice. These books will, therefore, be of interest to anyone researching or studying fairy tales, folklore and children’s literature, as well as global or comparative literature and social justice.
Preface - Jack Zipes
On Giants and Dwarfs - Romer Wilson
The Miraculous Pitcher - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Simmerwater: A Yorkshire Philemon - Anonymous
The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche - Apuleius
The Werewolf - Petronius
Eight Tales from Gesta Romanorum - Charles Swan
The Goose-Girl at the Well - J.E. Taylor (Brothers Grimm)
Clever Alice - J. E. Taylor (Brothers Grimm
Lohengrin - Anonymous
The Master-Thief - Anonymous
Boots and the Eating Match with the Troll - Asbjørnsen and Moe (Dasent)
How the Sea Became Salt - Anonymous
Finn MacCool and Future Events - F. R. Davies
Finn MacCool and the Giant
O’Donaghue’s Pigs - Anonymous
Davy Hanlan - Patrick Cody
Some Nonsense - Anonymous
The Twelve Dancing Princesses - Thomas Roscoe (Brothers Grimm)
Cinderella. or, The Little Glass Slipper - James R. Planché (Charles Perrault)
The Yellow Dwarf - James R. Planché (Mme d’Aulnoy)
Beauty and the Beast - James R. Planché (Mme Villeneuve )
Biography
Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools and has written and translated fairy tales for children and adults. Some of his recent publications include: Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of Fairy Tales (2014) and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales (2017). In 2019, he founded his own press called Little Mole and Honey Bear and has published The Giant Ohl and Tiny Tim (2019), Johnny Breadless (2020), Yussuf the Ostrich (2020), Keedle the Great and All You Want to Know about Fascism (2020), and Tistou, The Boy with the Green Thumbs of Peace (2021).
