Percy B. Green

Percy B. Green is the author of A History of Nursery Rhymes, first published in London by Greening & Co. in 1899. The book has remained his best-documented work and is still circulated through major public-domain and library catalogs.

In that study, he treats nursery rhymes not simply as children's amusements, but as survivals of older beliefs, rituals, and social habits. His writing connects familiar verses with folklore, religion, custom, and the history of language, giving the book an energetic, wide-ranging feel that still appeals to readers interested in children's literature and popular tradition.

Reliable biographical details about Green himself are scarce in the sources I could confirm, so his personal life remains hard to sketch with confidence. What does stand out clearly is the curiosity behind his work: he wrote about nursery rhymes as something layered, strange, and culturally important, helping preserve a subject that might otherwise have seemed too ordinary to study closely.