Borrow, George Henry

1803–81, English writer and traveler. He led a nomadic life in England and on the Continent, where he was a translator and agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society. His friendship with the Gypsies, whose language he learned, resulted in The Zincali; or … the Gypsies of Spain (1841). Although his most famous book is The Bible in Spain (1843), his best is probably the autobiographical Lavengro (1851), with its sequel, Romany Rye (1857). All Borrow's works are based on his wanderings.

See Norwich edition of his works (16 vol., 1923–24); D. Willams, A World of His Own (1982); M. Collie and A. Fraser, George Borrow: A Bibliographic Study (1984).