Literature
Baring-Gould wrote many novels (including Mehalah) and Guavas, the Tinner (1897), a collection of ghost stories, a 16-volume The Lives of the Saints, and the biography of the eccentric poet-vicar of Morwenstow, Robert Stephen Hawker. His folkloric studies resulted in The Book of Were-Wolves (1865), one of the most frequently cited studies of lycanthropy. He habitually wrote while standing, and his desk can be seen in the manor.
One of his most enduringly popular works was Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, first published in two parts during 1866 and 1868, and republished in many other editions since then. "Each of the book's twenty-four chapters deals with a particular medieval superstition and its variants and antecedents," writes critic Steven J. Mariconda. H. P. Lovecraft termed it "that curious body of medieval lore which the late Mr. Baring-Gould so effectively assembled in book form."
He wrote much about the Westcountry: his works of this topic include:
- A Book of the West. 2 vols. I: Devon; II: Cornwall. London : Methuen, 1899
- Cornish Characters and Strange Events. London: John Lane, 1909 (reissued in 1925 in 2 vols., First series and Second series)
- Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.
Baring-Gould served as President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for ten years from 1897.
Read more about this topic: Sabine Baring-Gould
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