Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Arts & Culture Helping us make our way ‘through a world that can feel broken’ Liz Mineo Harvard Staff Writer September 25, 2026 long read Maria Tatar has spent her career tracing evolution of folk, fairy tales, explaining why they still matter Part of the Experience series Scholars at Harvard tell their stories in the Experience series. Maria Tatar’s love for fairy tales and German literature took root in the cluttered attic of a rambling mansion donated to a church in Highland Park, Illinois. Her family was housed there after immigrating from postwar Europe and settling in the US as “displaced persons.” Tatar, one of the world’s foremo...