Charles J. Billson

Charles James Billson (1858–1932) was a translator, lawyer, and collector of folklore.

Billson was born in Leicester, graduated from Oxford University, and died in Heathfield in Sussex. He is buried in All Saints Church yard.

His works include a translation of Virgil's Aeneid, and a noted paper on the Easter Hare. He began a correspondence with Herman Melville, after requesting a reading list from the author, and introduced him to works by the then obscure poet James Thomson. Billson forwarded his correspondence to Melville's biographers.[1]

Charles J. Billson was President (1893–94) of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society.[2]

His publications included:-

  • (1895) County Folk-Lore - Leicestershire and Rutland, London, Folk Lore Society
  • (1920) Mediaeval Leicester, Edgar Backus, Leicester
  • (1924) Leicester Memoirs, Edgar Backus, Leicester

References

  1. ^ Gale, Robert L. (1995). A Herman Melville encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-313-29011-4. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  2. ^ "Presidents: Charles James Billson" Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society