Japanese Fairy World (Esprios Classics)

William Elliot Griffis (September 17 1843 - February 5 1928) was an American orientalist Congregational minister lecturer and prolific author. Griffis was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania the son of a sea captain and later a coal trader. During the American Civil War he served two months as a corporal in Company H of the 44th Pennsylvania Militia after Robert E. Lee invaded Pennsylvania in 1863. After the war he attended Rutgers University at New Brunswick New Jersey graduating in 1869. At Rutgers Griffis was an English and Latin language tutor for Tar? Kusakabe [ja] a young samurai from the province of Echizen (part of modern Fukui). After a year of travel in Europe he studied at the seminary of the Reformed Church in America in New Brunswick (known today as the New Brunswick Theological Seminary).