Thomas Frederick Crane
1844–1927
Biography
Thomas Frederick Crane was an American folklorist, teacher and lawyer who lived from 1844 to 1927. He was born in New York, took his undergraduate degree at Princeton in 1864, and after studying law at Columbia he settled in Ithaca, New York. There he practiced as a lawyer and worked as a librarian for the newly founded Cornell University.
At Cornell he became a teacher of French, Italian, Spanish and medieval literature, and he helped to found the Journal of American Folklore. He served as the first dean of the College of Arts and, for a time, as acting president of the university, and in 1877 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Students gave him the nickname 'Tee Fee Crane', and Cornell's fight song 'Give My Regards to Davy' keeps his name in the university's memory.
His best-known book is Italian Popular Tales, published in 1885, a collection of Italian folk stories, many of which first appeared in the children's magazine St. Nicholas. The book on this site is that collection, and it is the work for which he is particularly noted. The sources below are the place to check the details of his career.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Italian Popular Tales
by Thomas Frederick Crane
Thomas Frederick Crane's 1885 collection of Italian folk tales from many regions, with notes. Giants, clever youngest sons and talking animals fill its pages. A scholar's gathering that still reads like stories. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.