Green Magic

With introductions and biographies from Jack Zipes, and the original illustrations by Violet Brunton, this collection of fairy tales originally published by the award-winning Romer Wilson – Green Magic (1928), Silver Magic (1929), Red Magic (1930) – offers a combination of classic fairy tales, with lesser-known, global and diverse tales.

"Wilson’s playful paratexts and advice to readers that they must each discover the truth of a tale themselves make it evident that her priority is not presenting texts as a folklorist would but giving readers permission to engage them imaginatively on their own terms. After all, Wilson was not a scholar but a novelist—one possessing a mind that was not only erudite but also playful. Her diverse selection of fairy tales challenges and encourages readers to read the tales without the sober paratextual guidance of a conventional editor and to be dazzled by the imaginative words and worlds they encounter. In recovering Green Magic , Silver Magic , and Red Magic , Zipes gives Romer Wilson a chance to remind us that fairy tales are also about play."

--Donald Haase

Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools and has written and translated fairy tales for children and adults. Some of his recent publications include: Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of Fairy Tales (2014) and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales (2017). In 2019, he founded his own press called Little Mole and Honey Bear and has published The Giant Ohl and Tiny Tim (2019), Johnny Breadless (2020), Yussuf the Ostrich (2020), Keedle the Great and All You Want to Know about Fascism (2020) and Tistou, The Boy with the Green Thumbs of Peace (2021).