James Stephens (1880–1950) was an Irish novelist, poet and BBC radio presenter, a classic of 20th-century Irish literature, an expert and popularizer of the medieval Irish linguistic tradition. Stevens gave us five novels, three collections of his own stories, a scattering of short prose and incredibly diverse poetry. Stevens's style is unmistakable: it is ironic, incredibly rich and generous - and imbued with the depths of Irish history and the music of the language. Stevens himself is more likely from the “Joycean cohort”, a bright, bold modernist, a smart, observant satirist, but his commitment to the Irish literary tradition, deep knowledge of the language and strong national feeling created for him a unique place in Irish and world literature of the 20th century. Irish Wondrous Tales (1920) is a collection of ten ancient Irish tales reimagined by Stevens. A true connoisseur and keeper of the ancient voices of Ireland, Stevens carefully and at the same time vividly and sparklingly translated these phantasmagoria into a modern language more understandable to us, preserving the seminal scattering of spoken language that the emerald hills heard in time immemorial.