W. F. Ryan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Francis Ryan (1937–2023), usually known as W.F. Ryan or Will Ryan,[1] was a British librarian and scholar of Russian language and culture,[2] who was described as "one of the world's foremost experts" on Russian magic and witchcraft.[3]
Ryan was Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fellow, School of Advanced Study, The Warburg Institute, University of London.[4] Ryan died in 2023.[1]
Between 1967 and 1976, Ryan was a lecturer in Russian Language and Literature at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. In 1976, he was appointed Academic Librarian at the Warburg Institute, University of London, a position he held until 2002.[5]
In 1999, Ryan published The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia (1999), which was described by one reviewer as "the most thorough and detailed study to date on the magic and divination of Russian and Eastern Slav peoples".[6]
