William Elliot Griffis

William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) was an American minister, educator and author. Born in Philadelphia, he served in the Union army, studied at Rutgers, and in 1870 went to Japan to teach science, first in the domain of Fukui and then in Tokyo. His book The Mikado's Empire (1876) introduced Japan to many American readers, and Corea, the Hermit Nation (1882) did the same for Korea, which he had not then visited. Back in the United States he served as a pastor in Schenectady and Boston and wrote biographies, histories of the Dutch, and collections of fairy tales from Japan, Korea, Belgium, Wales and elsewhere.