author
Frank Rinder
1865–1945
Best known for retelling Japanese myths and legends for English-language readers, this writer also moved in the world of British art criticism and print collecting. His work blends a clear storyteller’s touch with an evident love of visual culture.
1 Audiobook
Old-World Japan: Legends of the Land of the Gods
by Frank Rinder
About the author
Frank Rinder is best known as the author of Old-World Japan: Legends of the Land of the Gods, a late-19th-century collection that retells Japanese stories for English readers. Library and public-domain records for the book identify him as Frank Rinder and connect him with editions published in the 1890s and later archival copies.
Sources on British art history identify “Frank Rinder” as the pen name of Joseph Francis Rinder, an art critic for the Glasgow Herald and a writer on prints and artists. He was also associated with books on the Royal Scottish Academy and on the etcher D. Y. Cameron, showing that his interests ranged from folklore and literature to the visual arts.
The dates attached to him vary across catalog and reference sources, with some listing 1865–1945 and others identifying Joseph Francis Rinder as 1863–1937. Because of that conflict, it is safest to say that Frank Rinder was active from the late 19th century into the early 20th century, and is remembered today chiefly for Old-World Japan and his writing on British art.