Historical voicesOn the Valice list
1836–1883
American journalist and consul whose British Goblins gathered Welsh folklore and customs.
On the Valice list. One title published by Valice Press carries Wirt Sikes’s work; it is below.
Biography
American journalist and writer (1836–1883), United States Consul at Cardiff from June 1876 until his death. He had worked on newspapers in Utica, Chicago and New York, written two novels, and — by one account — used as many as thirty pseudonyms, one of them for a dime novel. Four years in Wales produced British Goblins (1880), still the largest book on Welsh folklore in English, and Rambles and Studies in Old South Wales (1881). Richard Dorson called the first the most substantial book of Welsh legendry in English, and in the same assessment faulted it for leaning on earlier compilations rather than on collecting of its own.
Works
Timeline
1856
Working as a typesetter and contributor at the Utica Morning Herald.
1862
Became canal inspector in Chicago for the state-owned Illinois and Michigan Canal.
1871
Married the lecturer Olive Logan; they went to Europe and kept up their journalism there.
1876
Appointed United States Consul at Cardiff, Wales.
1880
Published British Goblins, from the pieces on Welsh folklore, mythology and customs he wrote during his consulship.
1883
Died at Brompton and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.
Why they are here
British Goblins is the book that brought together Welsh fairy lore, legends and customs for English-language readers. Sikes was not a trained folklorist but a working journalist with an interest in the people he met as consul, and the book shows both the reach and the limits of that approach.
He is best remembered today for his writings on Welsh folklore and customs. He is also said to have used as many as thirty pseudonyms across a prolific, mostly forgotten output.
On the Valice list
Nearby on the shelf
These are Valice Press titles from the same part of the library. They are not by Wirt Sikes, and they are not a recommendation on Wirt Sikes’s behalf — only the same shelf.
A World Bestiary: 112 Legendary Creatures from 40 Traditions — Beasts, Spirits, and Guardians of World Folklore
Emre Doğan
Thirty Creation Myths from Every Corner of the Earth, Told Whole
Emre Doğan
Eighteen Trickster Tales from Eleven Traditions, and What Each One Cost
Emre Doğan
Volume One: The Vedic Gods — 5 Chapters Complete in the 1913 Text, Annotated, with a Register Grading the Author's Comparisons and a Who's-Who of 32 Figures with Verified Chapter References
Emre Doğan
Related authors
Sources
Everything on this page about Wirt Sikes is written from these sources, not from memory. Their dates and key claims were checked against the sources on 8 October 2026.The life dates are compared across Wikidata and the Library of Congress’s authority records.
