Walter Evans Wentz: The Greatest Fairy Hunter of Them All?

Simon and Chris follow in the mystical footsteps of Walter Evans Wentz, who journeyed from New Jersey real-estate hustler to theosophic acolyte to roving collector of fairylore in the deep west. Tramping through Ireland, Scotland, Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, Walter sat by many a peat fire hearing tales of fairy nurses, stolen brides, knockers, pixies and the Gentry — and Chris wonders what these narrators really made of such a singular American. Along the way there is fairy seer extraordinaire Barney Crystal of Grange, Walter’s crush on W. B. Yeats, the spelling of Cambridge, the problem of fairy shorthand, and the question of whether Walt was a cold fish, a sociopath, a bully or an all-round good guy. There is also the strange afterlife of The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries in the Age of Aquarius (and just a tiny bit of the Tibetan Book of the Dead).