KEENE, Donald 1922-

PERSONAL: Born June 18, 1922, in New York, NY; Education: Columbia University B.A., 1942, M.A., 1947, Ph.D., 1951; Cambridge University, M.A., 1949, D.Litt., 1978. Hobbies and other interests: Operatic music.

ADDRESSES: Office—Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, Kent Hall 507, Columbia University, New York, NY.

CAREER: Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, lecturer in Japanese, 1949-54; Columbia University, New York, NY, professor of Japanese, 1955—; Columbia University Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature, 1981; University Professor, 1989; University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus. Military service: U.S. Navy, 1942-46; became lieutenant.

MEMBER: Japan Society, American Oriental Society, Century Association, Phi Beta Kappa, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976—), American Academy of Arts and Letters (1986—), Honorary Member Japan Academy (1990).

AWARDS, HONORS: Kikuchi Kan Prize (first nonJapanese recipient), 1962; Guggenheim fellowship; Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class, 1975, and Second Class, 1993; Japan Foundation Prize, 1983; Nihon Bungaku Taisho (Grand Prize of Japanese Literature) and first non-Japanese to win the Yomiuri Shimbun Prize for the best book of literary criticism in Japanese, both for Travelers of a Hundred Ages, 1985; Shincho Grand Literary Prize, 1985; Tokyo Metropolitan Prize, 1987; National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandorf Award, 1991; Radio and Television Culture Prize, 1993; Inoue Yasushi Prize, 1994; Asahi Prize, 1998; awarded title of "Person of Cultural Merit" (Bunka Koro-sha), by the government of Japan, 2002. Honorary degrees from St. Andrew's College, 1990, Middlebury College, 1995, Columbia University, 1997, Tohoku University 1997, Waseda University, 1998, Tokyo Gaikokugo Daigaku, 1999, and Keiwa University, 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Battles of Coxinga, Taylor's Foreign Press, 1951.

The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1952, revised edition, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1968.

Japanese Literature: An Introduction for WesternReaders, Grove (New York, NY), 1953.

(Editor) Anthology of Japanese Literature, Grove (New York, NY), 1955.

(Editor) Modern Japanese Literature, Grove (New York, NY), 1956.

Living Japan, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1959.

Modern Japanese Novels and the West, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1961, Grove (New York, NY), 1965.

Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1965.

(Editor) The Manyoshu, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1965.

No: The Classical Theatre of Japan, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1967.

Landscapes and Portraits, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1971, published as Appreciation of Japanese Culture, 1981.

Meeting with Japan, Gakuseisha (Tokyo, Japan), 1972.

(Editor) War-Wasted Asia: Letters, 1945-46, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1975.

World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1976.

(With Edward G. Siedensticker and others) 30 ThingsJapanese, Yumi Shobo (Tokyo, Japan), 1978.

Some Japanese Portraits, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1978.

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the ModernEra, Holt (New York, NY), 1984.

The Pleasures of Japanese Literature, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Richard Wood) Aesthetic and Ethical Values inJapanese Culture, Institute for Education in Japan (Richmond, IN), 1990.

No and Bunraku: Two Forms of Japanese Theatre, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from EarliestTimes to the Late Sixteenth Century, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1993.

On Familiar Terms: A Journey across Cultures, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1994, also published as On Familiar Terms: To Japan and Back, A Lifetime across Cultures, 1996.

Modern Japanese Diaries: The Japanese at Home andAs Revealed through Their Diaries, Henry Holt and Co. (New York, NY), 1995.

The Blue-Eyed Tar-Okaja: A Donald Keene Anthology, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Travelers of a Hundred Ages, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(With others) Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age:Woodblock from the Meiji Era, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA), 2001.

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Five Modern Japanese Novelists, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

TRANSLATOR:

Osamu Dazai, Setting Sun, New Directions (New York, NY), 1956.

Yukio Mishima, Five Modern No Plays, Knopf (New York, NY), 1957.

Dazai, No Longer Human, New Directions (New York, NY), 1958.

(With E. G. Seidensticker) Toyataka Komiya, editor, Japanese Culture in the Meiji Era: Music and Drama, Tuttle, 1959.

Monzaemon Chikamatsu, Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1961.

(Editor and translator) The Old Woman, the Wife, and the Archer, Viking (New York, NY), 1961.

Mishima, After the Banquet, Knopf (New York, NY), 1963.

Chikamatsu, Four Major Plays, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1964.

Yoshida Kenko, Essays in Idleness, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1967.

Mishima, Madame de Sade, Grove (New York, NY), 1967.

Kobo Abe, Friends, Grove (New York, NY), 1969.

(Editor and translator) Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1970.

Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1971.

Abe, The Man Who Turned into a Stick, Tokyo University Press (Tokyo, Japan), 1975.

Chomei Kamo, An Account of My Hut, Banyan Press (Pawlet, VT), 1976.

Basho Matsuo, The Narrow Road to Oku, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1996.

Kenko Yoshida, Essays in Idleness, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Makoto Oda, The Breaking Jewel, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Also author of books published in Japanese. Contributor to Essays on Asian Theater, Music, and Dance, Performing Arts Program of Asia (New York, NY), 1974. Contributor to Japanese periodicals and New York Times Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: For decades Donald Keene has been acknowledged internationally as the leading Western expert on Japanese literature and culture. While serving as professor of Japanese literature at Columbia University, he has translated numerous Japanese literary works and written over thirty books encompassing both literary criticism and commentary on Japanese arts and culture.

With this wealth of production, written in both English and Japanese, testifying to his encyclopedic knowledge of his subject, Keene has been credited with almost single-handedly establishing Japanese literature as one of the world's major literatures. His scholarly criticism and willingness to make value judgments about literary works have differentiated him from traditional Japanese literary critics and have brought him many acknowledgements and awards in both Japan and the West.

Keene's love of Japanese culture has occasionally taken him out of the classroom. He was a passionate lobbyist in attempting to win the Formentor Prize for Yukio Mishima, and in 1966 he organized the first American tour of a No theater troupe. Although he still teaches at Columbia University and considers his primary work to be that of passing his knowledge on to his students, he spends the major portion of each year in Japan.

Barbara Ruch of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University was quoted in Columbia as saying, "No other figure in the twentieth century has been recognized on such a world scale for his contributions to the advancement of Japanese literary and humanistic studies." In fact, in 2002, Keene was awarded the title of "Person of Cultural Merit" (Bunka Koro-sha), one of the Japanese government's highest awards.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

The Writers Directory, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

AB Bookman's Weekly, September 4, 1989, p. 768; November 20, 1995, p. 2026.

American Notes and Queries, September, 1983, p. 27.

Atlantic Monthly, April, 1995, p. 141.

Biography, fall, 1996, p. 430.

Booklist, September 1, 1988, p. 28; July, 1989, p. 1862; January 15, 1994, p. 894; March 1, 1995, p. 1174.

Book World, May 6, 1984, p. 10; November 27, 1988, p. 1; August 23, 1992, p. 12; January 16, 1994, p. 11; March 13, 1994, p. 3; May 12, 1996, p. 12.

Choice, July, 1984, p. 1615; May, 1989, p. 1524; March, 1990, p. 1154; December, 1993, p. 611.

Christian Science Monitor, November 16, 1988, p. 19; August 31, 1995, p. B3.

College Literature, June, 1994, p. 187; June, 1995, p. 185.

Columbia, February, 1986.

Commentary, July, 1994, p. 27.

Economist, November 16, 1996, p. 17.

Far Eastern Economic Review, May 22, 1997, p. 69.

Journal of Asian Studies, February, 1990, p. 159.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1989, p. 750; December 15, 1993, p. 1569; January 1, 1995, p. 54.

Library Journal, May 15, 1984, p. 983; January 1985, p. 51; September 15, 1988, p. 85; September 1, 1989, p. 189; January 1994, p. 130; February 15, 1995, p. 162; March 1, 1995, p. 90; June 1, 1996, p. 106.

London Review of Books, March 1, 1984, p. 20.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 22, 1984, p. 1; August 20, 1989, p. 1; July 18, 1993, p. 8; June 9, 1996, p. 15.

New Republic, June 25, 1984, p. 28.

New Yorker, September 25, 1989, p. 121; November 15, 1993, p. 127; April 4, 1994, p. 99; April 17, 1995, p. 108; October 7, 1996, p. 96.

New York Review of Books, September 26, 1985, p. 36.

New York Times, May 5, 1984, p. 13; February 21, 1994, p. C17.

New York Times Book Review, May 13, 1984, p. 11; March 12, 1989, p. 23; October 31, 1993, p. 21; December 5, 1993, p. 58; February 20, 1994, p. 22; April 2, 1995, p. 20; June 11, 1995, p. 24; July 14, 1996, p. 28.

Pacific Affairs, fall, 1986, p. 509.

Publishers Weekly, February 3, 1984, p. 393; September 30, 1988, p. 57; May 26, 1989, p. 49; January 3, 1994, p. 64; January 16, 1995, p. 444; March 18, 2002, p. 85.

Reference and Research Book News, February 1989, p. 21; October 1989, p. 26; December 1993, p. 42; May, 1999, p. 170; August, 1999, p. 149.

Seattle Times, May 19, 2002, p. L9.

Smithsonian, January, 1990, p. 158.

Southern Humanities Review, summer, 1996, p. 286.

Times Literary Supplement, April 7, 1989, p. 370; October 28, 1994, p. 32.

Translation Review Supplement, May, 1995, p. 11; December, 1996, p. 8.

Tricycle, summer, 1994, p. 109.

World Literature Today, winter, 1996, p. 241; winter, 1997, p. 228.

ONLINE

Columbia University Press,http://www.columbia.edu/ (April 30, 2003).*