She then emigrated to England in 1923, where she began work as a journalist. Careerįrom 1920, Almedingen taught English history and literature at Petrograd University. She transferred from Xenia to Petrograd University in 1916, where she attended until she earned her first doctorate in 1920. She received the highest honors in history and literature at Xenia. Despite this, the author was able to attend the Xenia Institute in 1913 and eke out a living in the increasingly desperate times of the Russian revolution and civil war.

Early lifeĪfter her father abandoned his family in 1900, they increasingly lived in impoverishment. There, she married Alexander Almedingen, who had turned his back on his family's military traditions to become a scientist. Their daughter and the novelist's mother, Olga Sergeevna, grew up in Kent- but, fascinated by her father's native Russian, moved to Russia in 1800s. Their children had English governesses and grew up speaking English. His second wife, Ellen Sarah Southee, the daughter of an English gentleman farmer, grew up in Kent. There are also several books created towards the end of the series which contain representative tales from many countries if you are interested in reading a sampler of stories.On her mother's side, she was descended from the aristocratic Poltoratsky family her maternal grandfather was Serge Poltoratzky, the literary scholar and bibliophile who ended his days in exile, shuttling between France and England. If you’re looking to collect some or all the books in this series, they can easily be collected separately, because the dust jacket for each book is often illustrated in the style of the regional tales being told, so the books don’t always look like a series.

The books contain some lovely tales from countries all around the world, and all the ones I have read have been of a high standard.ĭifferent countries are covered by different authors, and the black and white (no colour) illustrations are by a variety of different illustrators, but all are quality. These books were published between the late 1950s to the early 1970s – mostly by Frederick Muller, but several were also published by Follett. Welcome to my illustrated bibliography of all of the books in Frederick Muller’s Folk & Fairy Tales series (also known as the World Fairy Tales Collection). Muller’s Fairy Tales – A Complete Illustrated Bibliography Introduction

Russian fairy tales by E.M. Almedingen