Robin Hood version of Robin Hood's life. In reaching his conclusion Ritson relied or gave weight to a number of unreliable sources, such as the Robin Hood plays of Anthony Munday, and the Sloane Manuscript. Nevertheless, Dobson and Taylor credit Ritson with having 'an incalculable effect in promoting the still continuing quest for the man behind the myth', and note that his work remains an 'indispensable handbook to the outlaw legend even now'. Ritson's friend Walter Scott used Ritson's anthology collection as a source for his picture of Robin Hood in Ivanhoe, written in 1818, which did much to shape the modern
Robin Hood in popular culture Allinson in 1904. A 'companion' novel to Egan's text was published by J. H. Stocqueler in 1849 entitled "Maid Marian, the Forest Queen; Being a Companion to "Robin Hood"". The first Robin Hood novel written specifically for children appears to be Stephen Percy's "Tales of Robin Hood" (1840). John B. Marsh's children's book "Robin Hood" appeared in 1865, as did a penny dreadful entitled "Little John and Will Scarlet" (1865). The next major novel written was entitled "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" by Howard Pyle in 1883. In T.H. White's novel "The Sword in the Stone" (1938, later incorporated