Mary Frere

Mary Eliza Isabella Frere was a British author born in 1845. She is best known for her work in collecting and translating Indian folktales, making significant contributions to the preservation of oral traditions. The daughter of Sir Henry Bartle Frere, a British colonial administrator, Mary spent much of her early life in India. It was during her time in India that she began to gather stories from local Indian women, particularly her ayah, Anna Liberata de Souza. These tales were later compiled into her seminal work, 'Old Deccan Days,' published in 1868, which is one of the earliest collections of Indian folktales in English. Frere's collection played a crucial role in introducing Western audiences to the richness of Indian folklore and demonstrated the interconnectedness of cultural narratives across the globe.