Perera, Arthur A. is an author about whom little public information is available; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and personal history are not clearly recorded, and only one of his works is held in the collection. On the basis of the available information, he is associated with the documentation of folklore in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). His representative work, Sinhalese Folklore Notes, Ceylon, takes Sinhalese folklore as its subject and is essentially a notebook-style compilation of folkloric materials. Writing of this kind is usually based on field observations and oral sources, emphasizing records over elaboration; its style is plain and its purpose is clearly the preservation of materials. Although the author's life remains difficult to examine in detail, the work still offers primary material for the study of Sinhalese folk beliefs, customs, and oral traditions, and has a certain value for the regional documentation and preservation of folklore.
