Briggs, Katharine
Briggs, Katharine (Mary Briggs) (1898–1980),English folklorist, scholar, and children's author. Internationally famous for her encyclopaedic surveys of British folk tales, fairy traditions, and fairy folk, K. M. Briggs received her doctorate from Oxford in 1952. Her dissertation, on folklore in 17th‐century literature, indicated the direction much of her future work would take, including her two fantasies for children—tracing the connections between literature and folk belief, particularly fairy lore, during the centuries of transition between medieval and modern times. Her special interest in the many varieties of British fairy folk was evident in her first published book, The Personnel of Fairyland: A Short Account of the Fairy People of Great Britain for Those who Tell Stories to Children (1953), a prelude to her later, more comprehensive work in this area, which builds upon the tradition of Thomas