From newspaper work to comparative religion
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1878, Walter Yeeling Wentz left high school and tried business courses and newspaper work before seeking admission to Stanford. Special study made up his entrance deficiencies. He graduated in 1906, completed a master’s degree in 1907 and pursued Celtic research at Rennes and Oxford. During these years he added Evans to his surname.
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries appeared in 1911. Travel around the Mediterranean and later in India, Sikkim and Ceylon broadened his religious interests. Collaboration with Kazi Dawa-Samdup led to English editions of Tibetan texts: Evans-Wentz’s editorial contribution must be distinguished from the lama’s translations and learning. Further editing occupied much of his later life. He died in 1965 and left a substantial bequest to Stanford, supporting a continuing lectureship in religion, philosophy and ethics.
Many witnesses and an ambitious explanation
The 1911 Fairy-Faith organises its testimony around Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Regional scholars contribute introductions, while the dedication and preface acknowledge people whose oral and written accounts made the collection possible. A remembered personal encounter and a traditional story repeated by a witness have different relationships to evidence.
Later sections seek anthropological, literary and psychical explanations. Evans-Wentz’s spiritual commitments shape that movement from local accounts towards a general theory. Read beside the interpretation, the testimony preserves particular relationships among landscape, memory, belief and community. The book’s value includes that record of people speaking within their own settings, even where the compiler’s proposed explanation extends beyond what an individual account can establish.
