Alfred Nutt
English publisher and folklorist (1856–1910)

Alfred Trübner Nutt (22 November 1856 – 21 May 1910) was an English publisher, folklorist, and scholar of Arthurian literature and Celtic studies. Born into a publishing family in London, he succeeded to his father's firm, David Nutt, in 1878. He founded The Folk-Lore Journal, served as president of The Folklore Society, and wrote on the Celtic origins of the Grail legend. He was also involved in the establishment of the Irish Texts Society. Nutt drowned in the Seine in 1910 while trying to rescue his son.
Biography
Early life and education
Alfred Trübner Nutt was born in London on 22 November 1856, the eldest, and only surviving, son of bookseller and publisher David Nutt. His mother, Ellen Nutt (née Carter), was the granddaughter of another publisher, William Miller. His middle name came from his father's publishing partnership with Nicholas Trübner.
Nutt was educated at the University College School, London, and the Collège de Vitry-le-François in Vitry-le-François, France.
Career
Nutt spent three years in a business apprenticeship in Leipzig, Berlin, and Paris before taking over his late father's business in 1878.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alfred Nutt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.