Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Leland, Charles Godfrey

LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY, an American author; born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 15, 1824. He was graduated at Princeton College in 1845, and afterward studied at Heidelberg, Munich, and Paris. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1849, but turned to journalism. From 1869 he resided chiefly in England, and investigated the language and customs of the gipsies, a subject on which between 1873 and 1890 he published four valuable works. Leland is most widely known, however, for his dialect poems in “Pennsylvania Dutch,” the famous “Hans Breitmann Ballads” (1871). Other works are “The Poetry and Mystery of Dreams” (1855), “Meister Karl's Sketch Book” (1855), “Legends of Birds” (1864), “Fu-Sang” (1875), and “Algonquin Legends” (1884). In 1885 he edited a series of “Art-Work Manuals.” He died at Florence, Italy, March 20, 1903.