James Lewis Thomas Chalmers Spence was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1874. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and became Vice-President of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society. He is perhaps best known for his comprehensive Encyclopedia of Occultism (1920) that was the first work of its kind and, like this book, is still useful today. He is also known for The Myths of the North American Indians (1914), The Myths of Ancient Egypt (1915), and The History of Atlantis (1926). Spence was awarded a Royal pension in 1951 for Services to Literature, and died in 1955.