VRIES, JAN DE (1890–1964), was a Dutch folklorist and historian of religions. Jan Pieter Marie Laurens de Vries was born in Amsterdam on February 11, 1890, and died in Utrecht on July 23, 1964. In 1926, de Vries was appointed to the chair for ancient Germanic linguistics and philology (comprising also Indo-European comparative grammar) at the University of Leiden. Among the numerous positions he held was the editorship of the fifth edition of Winkler Prins's Algemene Encyclopedie (General Encyclopedia; 16 vols, 1932–1938); this function occupied him for the entire period of publication. He established also a famous series of classical Dutch literary works, "Bibliotheek der Nederlandsche letteren" (1938–), sponsored by the Society for Dutch Literature and the Royal Flemish Academy of Language and Literature. Internationally famous as a Germanist, he became known in even wider circles as a folklorist. During the 1930s he pleaded fervently and often that the study of folklore (volkskunde...