James Lewis Thomas Chalmers Spence (25 November 1874 – 3 March 1955) was a Scottish journalist, poet, author,

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

and

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

scholar. Spence was a Fellow of the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

of Great Britain and Ireland, and vice-president of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society. He founded the Scottish National Movement.

Early life

Spence was born in 1874 in

Monifieth Monifieth () is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Tay on the east coast. In , the population of Monifieth was estimated at , making it the fifth largest town ...

Angus, Scotland Angus (; ) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City (council area), Dundee City and Per ...

. After graduating from

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

he pursued a career in journalism. He was an editor at ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' 1899–1906, editor of ''The Edinburgh Magazine'' for a year, 1904–05, and then an editor at ''The British Weekly'', 1906–09.

Career

In this time Spence's interest was sparked in the myth and folklore of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, resulting in his popularisation of the

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, ...

, the sacred book of the Quiché Mayans (1908). He compiled ''A Dictionary of Mythology'' (1910), an ''Encyclopedia of occultism and parapsychology'' (1920) and numerous additional volumes. Turning his interest closer to home, he investigated

Scottish folklore Scottish folklore (Scottish Gaelic: ''Beul-aithris na h-Alba'') encompasses the folklore of the Scottish people from their earliest records until today. Folkloristics, Folklorists, both academic and amateur, have published a variety of works focu ...

. An ardent Scottish Nationalist, he unsuccessfully contested a parliamentary seat for Midlothian and Peebles Northern at a by-election in 1929. He also wrote poetry, collected in 1953. Spence wrote about Brythonic rites and traditions in ''Mysteries of Celtic Britain'' (1905). In this book, Spence theorized that the original Britons were descendants of a people that migrated from

Northwest Africa The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

and were probably related to the

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

and the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

Atlantis

Spence's research into the mythology and culture of the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

, together with his examination of the cultures of western Europe and north-west Africa, led him to the question of

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

. During the 1920s he published a series of books which sought to rescue the topic from the occultists who had more or less brought it into disrepute. These works, including ''The Problem of Atlantis'' (1924) and ''History of Atlantis'' (1927), adopted theories inaugurated by Ignatius Donnelly and looked at the lost island as a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

civilization that formed a cultural link with the New World, which he invoked through examples he found of parallels between the early civilizations of the Old and New Worlds. Despite Spence's erudition and the width of his reading, the conclusions he reached, avoiding peer-reviewed journals, have been almost universally rejected by mainstream scholarship. His popularisations met stiff criticism in professional journals, but his continued appeal among theory hobbyists is summed up by a reviewer of ''The Problem of Atlantis'' (1924) in ''The Geographical Journal'': "Mr. Spence is an industrious writer, and, even if he fails to convince, has done service in marshalling the evidence and has produced an entertaining volume which is well worth reading." Nevertheless, he seems to have had some influence upon the ideas of controversial author

Immanuel Velikovsky Immanuel Velikovsky (; rus, Иммануи́л Велико́вский, p=ɪmənʊˈil vʲɪlʲɪˈkofskʲɪj; 17 November 1979) was a Russian-American psychoanalyst, writer, and catastrophist. He is the author of several books offering Pseudohi ...

, and as his books have come into the public domain, they have been successfully reprinted and some have been scanned for the Internet. Spence's 1940 book ''Occult Causes of the Present War'' () is an early book in the field of Nazi occultism.

Personal life

In 1899 he married Helen Bruce. Over his long career, he published more than forty books, many of which remain in print to this day. Spence was also the founder of the Scottish National Movement which later merged to form the National Party of Scotland and which in turn merged to form the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

Death

Spence died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in 1955 aged 80 and is buried in the north-west section of the 20th century northern extension to

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...

in western Edinburgh. His wife, Helen S. Bruce (d. 1942) lies with him.

Selected works

Ancient Britain * ''The Mysteries of Britain: Secret Rites and Traditions of Ancient Britain Restored'', (1905, reprinted 1994) London: Senate. * ''The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain'', (1949, Reprint 1999) Dover Publications, * ''Celtic Spells and Charms'', (Reprint 2005) Kessinger Publishing * ''The History and Origins of Druidism'', 1949 Occult * ''An Encyclopaedia of Occultism: A compendium of information on the occult sciences, occult personalities, psychic science, magic, demonology, spiritism and mysticism'', (1920, Reprinted 2003) Dover Publications, * ''Occult Causes of the Present War'', (1940, Reprint 1997) Kessinger Publishing, * ''Second Sight: Its History and Origins'', Rider 1951 Atlantis and other lost worlds * ''The Problem of Atlantis'', London, 1924 * ''Atlantis in America'', London: Ernest Benn, 1925 * ''The History of Atlantis'' (1927, Reprinted 1995) Adventures Unlimited Press, * ''The Occult Sciences in Atlantis'', (Reprinted 1976) Mokelumne Hill Press, * ''The Atlantis of Plato'' * ''The Evidence For Lemuria From Myth And Magic'' * ''The Problem of Lemuria: The Sunken Continent of the Pacific'', London: Rider & Co., 1932 Mythology * ''The Popul Vuh: The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kiches of Central America'', London, David Nutt, 1908 * ''A Dictionary of Mythology'', 1910 *
The Myths of Mexico and Peru
' (1913, Reprinted 1976) Longwood, * '' The Myths of the North American Indians'', London: George G. Harrap & Co, 1914 * '' Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria'' (New York:Stokes) 1917; (Reprint 1997) Kessinger Publishing, "A readable popular account" began the reviewer in ''The Biblical World'', (51.2 ebruary 1918: 112-113 who found its breezy attempt to "contain the pure gold of Babylonian romance freed from the darker ore of antiquarian research", in Spence's words, a camouflage for Spence's "totally inadequate preparation."
''The Legends and Romances of Spain''
ca. 1920 * ''An Introduction to Mythology'' George G. Harrap & Co., 1921 * ''The Gods of Mexico'', Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1923 * ''The Mysteries of Egypt, or, The Secret Rites and Traditions of the Nile'', 1929 * ''The Magic and Mysteries of Mexico'', 1932 * ''Legends and Romances of Brittany'', 1917 * ''The Minor Traditions of British Mythology'', 1948, London: Rider & Co , Reprinted 1972, Benjamin Blom, Inc * ''The Outlines of Mythology'', 1944 * ''British Fairy Origins: The Genesis and Development of Fairy Legends in British Tradition'', London: Watts & Co., 1946 * ''Fairy Tradition in Britain'', (1948, Reprint 1997) Kessinger Publishing * ''Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine'' * ''Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends'', (Reprint 1990) Dover, * ''Scottish Ghosts and Goblins'', 1952 Poetry * ''Collected Poems of Lewis Spence'', 1953

Notes and references

External links

* * *
''Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Lewis 1874 births 1955 deaths People from Monifieth Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Mythographers Scottish folklorists 20th-century Scottish historians Scottish journalists Scottish National Party politicians Scottish lexicographers British encyclopedists 20th-century Scottish poets Scottish poets Scottish male poets Scots-language poets Atlantis proponents Lemuria Scottish Renaissance