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Donald Keene

Born June 18, 1922Died February 24, 2019

Donald Lawrence Keene was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer, and translator of Japanese literature. He was Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name Kīn Donarudo which is essentially his birth name in the Japanese name order. This was also his poetic pen name and occasional nickname, spelled in the ateji form 鬼怒鳴門.

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Books19

Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century

Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction

Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction

The First Modern Japanese

The First Modern Japanese

Early Light

Early Light

2022

with Osamu Dazai and Ralph McCarthy

So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers

So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers

2010
Chronicles of my life

Chronicles of my life

2008
Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan

Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan

2003
Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912

2002
Travelers of a Hundred Ages

Travelers of a Hundred Ages

1989
The Pleasures of Japanese Literature

The Pleasures of Japanese Literature

1988
World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600a "1867

World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600a "1867

1976
Eyewitness To History: The First Americans In Postwar Asia

Eyewitness To History: The First Americans In Postwar Asia

1975
ri ben rento ri ben wen hua

ri ben rento ri ben wen hua

1972
Twenty Plays of the No Theatre

Twenty Plays of the No Theatre

1970
The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830: Revised Edition

The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830: Revised Edition

1969
Modern Japanese Novels and the West

Modern Japanese Novels and the West

1961
Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day

Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day

1955
Japanese Literature: An Introduction for Western Readers

Japanese Literature: An Introduction for Western Readers

1953
The Setting Sun

The Setting Sun

1947

Novellas1

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

0900

with Yasunari Kawabata

Collections1

The Paper Door and Other Stories by Shiga Naoya

The Paper Door and Other Stories by Shiga Naoya

1987