author

Frank Rinder

1865–1945

Best known for retelling Japanese legends for English readers, this little-known writer also moved in the art world as a critic, collector, and champion of printmaking.

1 Audiobook

About the author

Frank Rinder is the pen name used by Joseph Francis Rinder, a Scottish-born writer and art critic. Reliable art-world sources identify him as born in Caithness, Scotland, later living and working in London, and note that he wrote criticism for the Glasgow Herald.

Alongside his literary work, he was deeply involved in the visual arts. He is described as a writer on and collector of early 20th-century prints, and he wrote important catalogues on the etchings of David Young Cameron. He also served on the committee of the Contemporary Art Society in the early 20th century.

For audiobook listeners, Rinder is especially remembered for Old-World Japan: Legends of the Land of the Gods, a lively retelling of Japanese myth and folklore first published in the 1890s. The exact life dates attached to him vary across catalogs, so it is safest to say that he was active from the late 19th century into the early decades of the 20th.