Who was this greatest man?

May 13, 2009 2:20 AM

I had a book (not a picture book) as a kid that was titled something like 'The Greatest Man in the World' or 'The Greatest Man that Ever Lived', and it was a collection of stories that were like fairy tales, or fables.

I remember little about it except for one story where the characters were trying to ride their horses up a glass mountain, and for some reason the 'greatest man's' horse was the only horse able to climb the mountain.

There was a magical nature to the stories. I lost the book in a fire and have never been able to forget it. I would be so grateful if someone knew this book and I could track it down.

Cheers!

posted by Zaire to writing & language (5 comments total)

Is there any chance it was a Richard Scarry book?This isn't exact but may help...
posted by keasby at 5:11 AM on May 13

The story about the glass mountain sounds a lot like Grimm's The Raven. Does that synopsis seem familiar? If so, maybe the book was a collection of Grimm stories, or of fairy tales?
posted by Houstonian at 6:16 AM on May 13

(And, I just saw that you said it was a collection of fairy tales. Oops. Is The Raven one of the stories?)
posted by Houstonian at 6:21 AM on May 13

Well, there's a Polish fairy tale called The Glass Mountain; Andrew Lang printed it in his Yellow Fairy Book. Nothing about a "greatest man" there, but it's an old story. Maybe it's been reprinted elsewhere, with the other elements you're thinking of?
posted by maqsarian at 7:37 PM on May 13

Yes, it does sound like The Raven was one of the stories. But it wasn't a Richard Scarry book... it was a paperback, probably for young adults. I've searched on ebay and Amazon, but no success. Thanks for everyone's response though... maybe one day I'll stumble upon it somewhere.
posted by Zaire at 8:41 PM on May 13