James Anson Farrer

Born in London in 1849, James Anson Farrer was an English barrister and writer. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1875, and went on to build a literary career alongside his legal training.

Farrer wrote on an unusually broad set of subjects, including political debate, historical biography, comparative religion, and social custom. He is especially remembered for books such as Primitive Manners and Customs, Paganism and Christianity, Books Condemned to be Burnt, and studies of figures including Adam Smith.

That mix of legal discipline and intellectual curiosity gives his writing much of its character: learned, skeptical, and interested in how beliefs and institutions take shape over time. He died in 1925.