Lang was a Scottish classical scholar, literary critic and Folklorist. He was educated at the University of St Andrews and matriculated from Oxford University in 1864, where he then became a Fellow. Lang was required to leave Oxford University after his engagement, because of rules forbidding Fellows to be married. From then on he earned his living as a writer, leaving behind a legacy of over 120 books and more that 5000 essays and articles on his death. Lang had many disagreements with his contemporaries over his anthropological ideas regarding folklore, including Howitt and Fison.
Andrew Duff-Cooper (1986) Andrew Lang: Aspects of His Work in Relation to Current Social Anthropology, Folklore, Vol. 97, No. 2, pp. 186-205
D. J. Mulvaney (1993) Australian Anthropology: Foundations and Funding, Aboriginal History, Vol. 17, No. 1/2, pp. 105-128.