The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) were German brothers who remained close friends, and both studied law. While Jacob went on to study philology, Wilhelm wrote. The two of them worked on creating a German dictionary, but it would not be finished until long after they were both dead.
The Brothers would be lost to history, except they also collaborated on a collection of 200 fairy tales and published two volumes of them in 1812 and 1814. Although their intention was purely to preserve the material and try to keep the German culture and history alive, their collection proved to be massively popular with young children. The first English translation arrived in 1823, making them a must read for children ever since.
