Willis Barnstone
Encyclopedia
Willis Barnstone is an American poet, memoirist, translator, Hispanist, and comparatist. He has translated the Ancient Greek poets and the complete fragments of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus
(Ἡράκλειτος). He is also a New Testament
and Gnostic scholar.
, Barnstone grew up in New York City
. He went to the World Series with his father to see Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth play. He lived on Riverside Drive, facing the Hudson River. One day in spring 1939, Joe the elevator man took him upstairs to Babe Ruth's apartment on the 18th floor. He was in his boy scout uniform. A newspaperman handed him a pile of baseball diplomas which the Babe would give out the next day at the World's Fair to raise money for poor school kids. The picture appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the New York tabloid The Daily News.He went to Stuyvesant High School
, the George School
, and Phillips Exeter Academy
, and received his B.A. from Bowdoin College
in 1948, his M.A. from Columbia University
in 1956, and his Ph.D. from Yale University
in 1960. He also studied at the University of Mexico, 1947, the Sorbonne
, 1948–49, and the School of Oriental and African Studies
at the University of London
, 1952-53. While in high school and college he worked as a volunteer with the Quaker American Friends Service Committee
in Aztec villages south of Mexico City. Addicted to foreign tongues, in 1973 he studied Chinese at Middlebury College
in their summer language program. He taught in Greece at the end of the Greek Civil War
from 1949 to 1951 and in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War
from 1975 to 1976. He was in China in 1972 during the Cultural Revolution
. A decade later he was Fulbright Professor of American Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University
, 1984-1985
, was O'Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University
, and is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Spanish at Indiana University
where he has been a member of East Asian Languages & Culture, and the Institute for Biblical and Literary Studies. He started Film Studies at Indiana and initiated courses in International Popular Songs and Lyrics and Asian and Western Poetry.
His center is poetry, but his books range from memoir, literary criticism, gnosticism
, and biblical translation to the anthologies A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, 1980 (with Aliki Barnstone) and Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1998 (with Tony Barnstone), and collections of photography and drawings. Funny Ways of Staying Alive, Poems and Ink Drawings, 1993, contains 103 dry brush drawings. His New Faces of China, 1973, a volume of photographs and facing poems, reveals China during the catastrophic Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Children play and smile wildly while austere adults, in identical prisonlike attire, sit on the pavement in empty Tiananmen Square.
In 1966 he founded and was director of Artes Hispánicas/Hispanic Arts, a slick, bilingual journal of Spanish and Portuguese art, literature, and music, published biannually by Macmillan Books and Indiana University. Two of its issues were published simultaneously as trade books: The Selected Poems of Jorge Luis Borges
, guest editor Norman Thomas di Giovanni
, and Concrete Poetry: A World View, guest editor Mary Ellen Solt
. In 1959 he was commissioned by Eric Bentley
for the Tulane Drama Review to do a verse translation of La fianza satisfecha, an obscure, powerful play by the Golden Age
Spanish playwright Lope de Vega
; his translation, The Outrageous Saint, was later adapted by John Osborne
for his A Bond Honoured (1966). In 1964 the BBC Third Programme
Radio commissioned him to translate for broadcast Pablo Neruda
's only play, the surreal verse drama Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta (Radiance and Death of Joaquin Murieta), which was also published in Modern International Drama, 1976.
Barnstone's pioneer biblical work is The Restored New Testament, Including The Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Judas. In this annotated translation and commentary, he restores the Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew names to their original form. For Pilate, Andrew, Jesus and James, one reads Pilatus, Andreas, Yeshua, and Yaakov. To reveal the poetry of the New Testament
, in the gospels he lineates Jesus's words as verse and renders Revelation
and the Letters of Paul into blank verse. In his introduction he calls Revelation
(Apocalypse
) the great epic poem of the New Testament
.
The Library Journal
in its 7/15/09 issue wrote, "In an achievement remarkable by almost any standard, and surely one of the events of the year in publishing, renowned poet and scholar Barnstone has created a new and lavish translation—almost transformation—of the canonical and noncanonical books associated with the New Testament. In part a continuation of his work in The New Covenant, Commonly Called the New Testament (2002) and The Other Bible (2005), and in many ways the completion of the pioneering efforts of other modern translators like Robert Alter
, Reynolds Price
, and Richmond Lattimore
, The Restored New Testament offers a completely new version of familiar and unfamiliar texts, restoring the likely Hebrew forms of names, and strongly emphasizing the poetic and almost incantatory passages that have been obscured within the New Testament. Barnstone also substantially reorders the traditional arrangement of books for reasons he ably expounds in an extended and learned yet accessible preface. The high bar Barnstone has set for himself is the creation of an English-language Scripture that will move poets much as the 1611 King James Version moved Milton
and Blake
. Only time will tell if Barnstone has achieved his goal, but his work is fascinating, invigorating, and often beautiful."
A Guggenheim
fellow, he has four times been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
in Poetry, and has had four Book of the Month Club
selections. His poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker
, Poetry Magazine, The New York Review of Books
, and The Times Literary Supplement
. His books have been translated into diverse languages including French, Italian, Romanian, Arabic, Korean, and Chinese.
Barnstone lives in Oakland, California. A full-time writer, he gives poetry readings, often with his daughter Aliki Barnstone and son Tony Barnstone.
In the States they went together to the universities of Indiana, Harvard, Columbia, and Chicago to give talks (charlas) that appear in Borges at Eighty: Conversations (1982). In his memoir biography of Borges, Barnstone describes the genesis of a short story that would appear posthumously. One morning at dawn he went to poet’s apartment. From there to the airport to fly to the Andean city of Córdoba:
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom...
(Ἡράκλειτος). He is also a New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
and Gnostic scholar.
Life
Born in Lewiston, MaineLewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, Barnstone grew up in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He went to the World Series with his father to see Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth play. He lived on Riverside Drive, facing the Hudson River. One day in spring 1939, Joe the elevator man took him upstairs to Babe Ruth's apartment on the 18th floor. He was in his boy scout uniform. A newspaperman handed him a pile of baseball diplomas which the Babe would give out the next day at the World's Fair to raise money for poor school kids. The picture appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the New York tabloid The Daily News.He went to Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
, the George School
George School
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings...
, and Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, and received his B.A. from Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
in 1948, his M.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1956, and his Ph.D. from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1960. He also studied at the University of Mexico, 1947, the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, 1948–49, and the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, 1952-53. While in high school and college he worked as a volunteer with the Quaker American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
in Aztec villages south of Mexico City. Addicted to foreign tongues, in 1973 he studied Chinese at Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
in their summer language program. He taught in Greece at the end of the Greek Civil War
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
from 1949 to 1951 and in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
from 1975 to 1976. He was in China in 1972 during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
. A decade later he was Fulbright Professor of American Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Beijing Foreign Studies University is the best foreign language and international studies university in China, often named "the cradle of diplomats" in the country.It is located in Weigongcun, Beijing, People's Republic of China...
, 1984-1985
Career
Willis Barnstone's first teaching position was instructor in English and French at the Anavryta Classical Lyceum in Greece, 1949–50, a private school in the forest of Anavryta north of Athens, attended by prince Constantine, the later ill-fated king of Greece, who was then nine years old. In 1951 he worked as a translator of French art texts for Les Éditions Skira in Geneva, Switzerland. He taught at Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, was O'Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
, and is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Spanish at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
where he has been a member of East Asian Languages & Culture, and the Institute for Biblical and Literary Studies. He started Film Studies at Indiana and initiated courses in International Popular Songs and Lyrics and Asian and Western Poetry.
His center is poetry, but his books range from memoir, literary criticism, gnosticism
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
, and biblical translation to the anthologies A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, 1980 (with Aliki Barnstone) and Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1998 (with Tony Barnstone), and collections of photography and drawings. Funny Ways of Staying Alive, Poems and Ink Drawings, 1993, contains 103 dry brush drawings. His New Faces of China, 1973, a volume of photographs and facing poems, reveals China during the catastrophic Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Children play and smile wildly while austere adults, in identical prisonlike attire, sit on the pavement in empty Tiananmen Square.
In 1966 he founded and was director of Artes Hispánicas/Hispanic Arts, a slick, bilingual journal of Spanish and Portuguese art, literature, and music, published biannually by Macmillan Books and Indiana University. Two of its issues were published simultaneously as trade books: The Selected Poems of Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, guest editor Norman Thomas di Giovanni
Norman Thomas di Giovanni
Norman Thomas di Giovanni is an American-born editor and translator known for his collaboration with Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges.-Biography:...
, and Concrete Poetry: A World View, guest editor Mary Ellen Solt
Mary Ellen Solt
Mary Ellen Solt, née Bottom was an American concrete poet. Her work was most notably poems in the shape of flowers such as "Forsythia", "Lilac", and"Geranium"...
. In 1959 he was commissioned by Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley is a critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. He became an American citizen in 1948, and currently lives in New York City...
for the Tulane Drama Review to do a verse translation of La fianza satisfecha, an obscure, powerful play by the Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
Spanish playwright Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega
Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
; his translation, The Outrageous Saint, was later adapted by John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
for his A Bond Honoured (1966). In 1964 the BBC Third Programme
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...
Radio commissioned him to translate for broadcast Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
's only play, the surreal verse drama Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta (Radiance and Death of Joaquin Murieta), which was also published in Modern International Drama, 1976.
Barnstone's pioneer biblical work is The Restored New Testament, Including The Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Judas. In this annotated translation and commentary, he restores the Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew names to their original form. For Pilate, Andrew, Jesus and James, one reads Pilatus, Andreas, Yeshua, and Yaakov. To reveal the poetry of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, in the gospels he lineates Jesus's words as verse and renders Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
and the Letters of Paul into blank verse. In his introduction he calls Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
(Apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
) the great epic poem of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
.
The Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
in its 7/15/09 issue wrote, "In an achievement remarkable by almost any standard, and surely one of the events of the year in publishing, renowned poet and scholar Barnstone has created a new and lavish translation—almost transformation—of the canonical and noncanonical books associated with the New Testament. In part a continuation of his work in The New Covenant, Commonly Called the New Testament (2002) and The Other Bible (2005), and in many ways the completion of the pioneering efforts of other modern translators like Robert Alter
Robert Alter
Robert Bernard Alter is an American professor of Hebrew language and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.-Biography:...
, Reynolds Price
Reynolds Price
Reynolds Price was an American novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist and the James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in ancient languages and Biblical scholarship...
, and Richmond Lattimore
Richmond Lattimore
Richmond Alexander Lattimore was an American poet and translator known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are generally considered as among the best English translations available.Born to David and Margaret Barnes Lattimore in...
, The Restored New Testament offers a completely new version of familiar and unfamiliar texts, restoring the likely Hebrew forms of names, and strongly emphasizing the poetic and almost incantatory passages that have been obscured within the New Testament. Barnstone also substantially reorders the traditional arrangement of books for reasons he ably expounds in an extended and learned yet accessible preface. The high bar Barnstone has set for himself is the creation of an English-language Scripture that will move poets much as the 1611 King James Version moved Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
and Blake
Blake
Blake is a surname or a given name which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin. Another theory is that it is a corruption of "Ap Lake",...
. Only time will tell if Barnstone has achieved his goal, but his work is fascinating, invigorating, and often beautiful."
A Guggenheim
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
fellow, he has four times been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in Poetry, and has had four Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month Club
The Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
selections. His poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Poetry Magazine, The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
, and The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
. His books have been translated into diverse languages including French, Italian, Romanian, Arabic, Korean, and Chinese.
Barnstone lives in Oakland, California. A full-time writer, he gives poetry readings, often with his daughter Aliki Barnstone and son Tony Barnstone.
With Borges
Jorge Luis Borges had already lost his sight in 1968 when Barnstone met him backstage at the 92nd Street the Poetry Center in New York after a poetry reading he had arranged for the Argentine poet. So began the literary friendship of his life. In 1975-76 in Buenos Aires he collaborated with Borges on a translation of his sonnets into English. In his poem “A Blind Man” blind Borges looks at an infinite mirror, false and infinite that he cannot see, but which reveals all:-
-
- I do not know what face looks back at me
- When I look at the mirrored face, nor know
- What aged man conspires in the glow
- Of the glass, silent and with tired fury.
- Slow in my shadow, with my hand I explore
- My invisible features. A sparkling ray
- Reaches me. Glimmers of your hair are gray
- And some are even gold. I’ve lost no more
- Than just the useless surfaces of things.
- This consolation is of great import,
- A comfort had by Milton. I resort
- To letters and the rose––my wonderings.
- I think if I could see my face I’d soon
- Know who I am on this fare afternoon.
-
In the States they went together to the universities of Indiana, Harvard, Columbia, and Chicago to give talks (charlas) that appear in Borges at Eighty: Conversations (1982). In his memoir biography of Borges, Barnstone describes the genesis of a short story that would appear posthumously. One morning at dawn he went to poet’s apartment. From there to the airport to fly to the Andean city of Córdoba:
"These were days of the Dirty War with bombs exploding off all over the city. When I arrived, Borges was wide awake, tremendouly excited. He told me his dream. ‘I wasn’t wakened by my usual nightmare, but by a bomb, a few buildings away. So I remembered the dream and knew it would be a story. I was tramping through downtown London, looking for a bed-and-breakfast place. Above a chemist’s shop I found a shabbily respectable place and took a room.
The owner, a tall, ugly, intense man had me alone and said, "I have been looking for you."
His glare paralyzed me but in the hour of my dream I could see him perfectly well.
You can’t get what I don’t have,” I said defiantly.
"I’m not here to steal. I'm here to make you the happiest man in the world. I have just acquired Shakepeare’s memory.”
I took his bundle of papers, read one gloriously lucent page clearly from an unknown play, picked up the phone and wired Buenos Aires for my savings, cleaning out my miserly lifetime account. I heard the bomb and woke. By then I could not remember a word of the burning text of Shakespeare's memory. The words in gold on velum were there, in beautiful script but intelligible. I came out of my Shakespeare business quick, clean, and empty handed. Except for the story."
With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires (Bloomington/London: Indiana University Press,1993), 70.
In 1996 Barnstone published a sequence of 501 sonnets, including this poem on Adam and Eve who live the first morning of the globe:
- THE GOOD BEASTS
- On the first morning of the moon, in land
- under the birds of Ur before the flood
- dirties the memory of a couple banned
- from apples and the fatal fire of blood,
- Adam and Eve walk in the ghetto park,
- circling a tree. They do not know the way
- to make their bodies shiver I the spark
- of fusion, cannot read or talk, and they
- know night and noon, but not the enduring night
- of nights that has no noon. Adam and Eve,
- good beasts, living the morning of the globe,
- are blind, like us, to apocalypse. They probe
- the sun, deathray on the red tree. Its light
- rages illiterate, until they leave.
Borges commented: “Four of the best things in America are Walt Whitman’s Leaves, Herman Melville’s Whales, the sonnets of Barnstone’s The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets, and my daily corn flakes--that rough poetry of morning.”
Poetry
- Poems of Exchange with Six Poems Translated from Antonio Machado
Antonio MachadoAntonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
, Athens: l’Institut français d’Athènes, 1951.- From This White Island, New York: Bookman, 1960.
- Antijournal, Vancouver, British Columbia: Sono Nis Press, 1971.
- A Day in the Country, New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
- New Faces of China, Bloomington, IN/London: Indiana University Press
Indiana University PressIndiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1950. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana....
, 1972.- China Poems, Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press,1977.
- Stickball on 88th Street, Illustrated by Karmen Effenberger, Boulder, CO: Bonus Book of Colorado Quarterly, 1978.
- Overheard, With 27 Drawings by Helle Tzalopoulou Barnstone. Bloomington, IN: Raintree Press, Limited Edition, 1979
- A Snow Salmon Reached the Andes Lake, New York/Austin: Curbstone Press, 1980.
- Ten Gospels and a Nightingale, Brookston, IN: Triangular Press, Limited Edition, 1981.
- The Alphabet of Night, Blomington, IN: Raintree Press, Limited Edition, 1984.
- Five A.M. in Beijing, Riverdale-on-Hudson: Sheep Meadow Press,1987.
- Funny Ways of Staying Alive, Poems and Ink Drawings. Hanover/London: University Press of New England
University Press of New EnglandThe University Press of New England , located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, is a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College , the University of New Hampshire, and Northeastern University...
, 1993.- The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets, Hanover/London: University Press of New England,1996.
- Algebra of Night: New & Selected Poems 1948-1998, Riverdale-on-Hudson: Sheep Meadow Press,1998.
- Life Watch, Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2003.
- Life Watch, Translated into Arabic by Abed Ishmael, Damascus, Syria: Al-Mada Publishing Company, 2004.
- Stickball on 88th Street, Pasadena, Red Hen Press, 2011.
- Café de l'Aube à Paris, Dawn Café in Paris: Poems Composed in French + Their Translation in English, Riverdale-on-Hudson: Sheep Meadow Pres, 2011.
Memoir
- From Hawthorne's Gloom to a Whitewashed Island, Edited by Joyce Nakamura, Detroit/London: Contemporary Authors: Autobiography Series, Gale Research Inc., Volume 15, 1992.
- With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires: A Memoir, Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press
University of Illinois PressThe University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
, 1993.
- Borges, într-o seară obişnuită, la Buenos Aires, Translated into Romanian by Mihnea Gafiţa, Bucureşti, România: Curtea Veche Publishing, 2002.
- With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires (A Memoir), Translated into Arabic by Dr. Abed Ishamael, Damacus, Syria: Al-Mada Publishing Company, 2002.
- Sunday Morning in Fascist Spain: A European Memoir (1948–1953), Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press
Southern Illinois University PressSouthern Illinois University Press, founded in 1956, is a university press located in Carbondale, Illinois.The press publishes approximately 50 titles annually, among its more than 1,200 titles currently in print....
, 1993.- We Jews and Blacks: Memoir with Poems: With a Dialogue and Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Literary Criticism
- Borges at Eighty: Conversations. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.
- Conversations avec J.L.Borge a l`occasion de son 80e anniversaire, Presentées par Willis Barnstone, Traduites de l'Americain au francais par Anne La Flaquière, Paris: Editions Ramsay.
- Jorge Luis Borges, Conversazioni Americane, A cura di Willis Barnstone, Traduzione in Italiano di Franco Mogni, Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1984.
- Borges at Eighty Chinese edition, Beijing, 2003.
- The Poetics of Ecstasy: from Sappho
SapphoSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
to Borges, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1983.- The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice, New Haven: Yale University Press
Yale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
, 1993.
Religious Scriptures
- The Other Bible: Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha
ApocryphaThe term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....
, Gnostic Scriptures, KabbalahKabbalahKabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
, Dead Sea ScrollsDead Sea scrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
, Edited with Introductions, San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1984.
- Sumgyojin Songso (translation of The Other Bible into Korean), Translation by Yi Tong-jin, Soul, Korea: Munhak Such’op, 1994, 2 vol; 2nd expanded ed., 3 volumes, 2005.
- The Apocalypse
ApocalypseAn Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
: Book of RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, A New Translation with Introduction, New York: New Directions, 2000.- The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Gracian Baltazar, Edited and with Introduction by Willis Barnstone and with Translation by J. Joseph Jacobs and Willis Barnstone, Boston: Shambhala Classics, 2000.
- The New Covenant
Covenant (biblical)A biblical covenant is an agreement found in the Bible between God and His people in which God makes specific promises and demands. It is the customary word used to translate the Hebrew word berith. It it is used in the Tanakh 286 times . All Abrahamic religions consider the Biblical covenant...
: The Four Gospels and Apocalypse, Newly Translated from the Greek and Informed by Semitic Sources, New York: Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2002.- The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom from the Ancient and Medieval Worlds---Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Islamic, and Cathar
CatharCatharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...
, (edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin MeyerMarvin MeyerMarvin Meyer is a scholar of religion and a tenured professor at Chapman University, in Orange, California.He is the Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute. He is also Director of the Coptic Magical Texts Project of the...
), Boston & London: Shambhala Books, 2003; The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded, Including the Gospel of Judas, (edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer), Boston: Shambhala Books, 2009.- The Gnostic Bible: Book and Audio-CD Set, The Gnostics and Their Scriptures and 3 CDs, Edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer; Read by Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer, and Nancy Lesniewski, Boston & London: Shambhala Books, 2008.
- The Restored New Testament Including The Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Judas, Newly Translated from the Greek and Informed by Semitic Sources, New York/London: W.W. Norton, 2009.
- Essential Gnostic Scriptures, Boston & London: Shambhala, 2010.
Translations
- Eighty Poems of Antonio Machado
Antonio MachadoAntonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
, Jacket drawing by Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Drawings by William BaileyWilliam BaileyWilliam Bailey was an American actor. He appeared in 222 films between 1911 and 1959. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Bailey died in Hollywood, California in 1962 at the age of 76.-Selected filmography:...
, Introduction by John Dos PassosJohn Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
, Reminiscence by Juan Ramon JimenezJuan Ramón JiménezJuan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
. New York: Las Americas,1959.- The Other Alexander, Margarita Liberaki, with Foreword by Albert Camus
Albert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, a Modern Greek novel translated by Willis Barnstone and Helle Barnstone, New York: Noonday Books, 1959.- Greek Lyric Poetry, Introduction by William McCulloh. New York: Bantam Classics, 1962; 2nd ed., with drawings by Helle Tzalopoulou Barnstone, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967.
- Mexico Before Cortez
Cortez-People:* Antawn Cortez Jamison , Professional NBA power forward* Dave "Baby" Cortez , American pop music and R&B musician* Gregorio Cortez , Mexican folk hero* Hernán Cortés , Spanish conquistador...
: Art, History, Legend by Ignacio BernalIgnacio BernalIgnacio Bernal was an eminent Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist.Bernal excavated much of Monte Albán, originally starting as a student of Alfonso Caso, and later led major archeological projects at Teotihuacan. In 1965 he excavated Dainzú...
, Translation and Introduction by Willis Barnstone, New York: Doubleday (Dolphin), 1963; Peter Smith, 1964.- Physiologus Theobaldi Episcopi De Naturis Duodecim Animalium, Bishop Theobald's Bestiary of Twelve Animals, Latin text with translations, Lithographs by Rudy Pozzatti. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1964.
- Sappho
SapphoSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
: Lyrics in the Original Greek with Translations, Introduction by Willis Barnstone, Foreword by Andrew Burn. New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1965; 2nd ed., New York: New York University Press.- The Poems of Saint John of the Cross, Introduction and Translations, Bloomington, IN.: Indiana University. Press, 1967.
- The Poems of Saint John of the Cross, rev. ed., Introduction and Translations, New Directions: New York, 1972.
- The Song of Songs: Shir Hashirim, (translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text). Athens, Greece: Kedros, 1970; 2nd rev. ed., Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 2002.
- The Poems of Mao Tse-tung, Translation with Ko Ching-po, Introduction, Notes by Willis Barnstone, New York: Harper & Row, 1972; 2nd. ed., London: Barrie & Jenkins Ltd., 1972.
- The Poems of Mao Tse-tung, rev. ed., Translation with Ko Ching-po, Introduction, Notes by Willis Barnstone, New York: Bantam Books., 1972.
- My Voice Because of You: 70 poems, Pedro Salinas
Pedro SalinasPedro Salinas y Serrano was a Spanish poet and member of the Generation of '27. He was also a scholar and critic of Spanish literature, teaching at universities in Spain, England, and the United States....
, Introduction and Translations, Preface by Jorge GuillénJorge GuillénJorge Guillén y Álvarez was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27.-Biography:Jorge Guillén was born in Valladolid. His life paralleled that of his friend Pedro Salinas, whom he succeeded as a Spanish teaching assistant at the Collège de Sorbonne in the University of Paris from 1917 to...
, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1976.- Radiance and Death of Joaquin Murieta by Pablo Neruda
Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, Translated by Willis Barnstone, Modern International Drama, Vol. 10, Number 1, 1976.- The Dream Below the Sun: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, Cover drawing by Pablo Picasso, Drawings by William Bailey, Introduction by John Dos Passos, Reminiscence by Juan Ramon Jimenez, Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1981.
- The Unknown Light: The Poems of Fray Luis de Leon, Introduction and Translations, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1979,
- Bird of Paper: Selected Poems of Vicente Aleixandre
Vicente AleixandreVicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre was a Nobel Prize laureate for Literature in 1977. He was part of the Generation of '27. He died in Madrid in 1984....
, Preface by Vicente Aleixandre, Translations by Willis Barnstone and David Garrison, Pittsburgh: International Forum, Byblos Editions, VI, 1981; 2nd ed., Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1982.- Twenty-four Conversations with Borges: Including a Selection of Poems, Interviews by Rosberto Alifano 1981-1983, Edited by Nicomedes Suarez Arauz, Translations by Willis Barnstone, New York/Housatonic, MA: Grove Press/Lascaux Publishers, 1984.
- Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Selected Poems of Wang Wei
Wang WeiWang Wei , was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.-Name...
, Translations by Willis Barnstone, Tony Barnstone, and Xu Haixin. Beijing, China: Foreign Literature Press (Panda Books), 1989.- Cantico espiritual: The Spiritual Canticle of St.John of the Cross, Austin: W. Thomas Taylor, limited edition, 1990.
- Laughing Lost in the Mountains: The Poems of Wang Wei
Wang WeiWang Wei , was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.-Name...
, Introduction by Willis Barnstone and Tony Barnstone, Translations by Willis Barnstone, Tony Barnstone, and Xu Haixin, with Drybrush Drawings by Willis Barnstone, Hanover, NH. University Press of New England, 1992.- Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet: (Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco de QuevedoFrancisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...
, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Antonio MachadoAntonio MachadoAntonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
, Federico Garcia LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Miguel HernandezMiguel HernándezMiguel Hernández Gilabert was a 20th century Spanish poet and playwright.-Biography:Hernández was born in Orihuela, in the Valencian Community, to a poor family and received little formal education; he published his first book of poetry at 23, and gained considerable fame before his death...
: Essays and Translations, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.- The Courage of the Rainbow by Bronislava Volkavá, Introduction by Willis Barnstone, Translations by author and Willis Barnstone, Andrew Durkin, Gregory Orr, and Lilli Parott, The Sheep Meadow Press: Riverdale-on-Hudson: New York, 1993.
- The Poems of Sappho: A New Translation, Translation and Introduction, Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1997.
- To Touch the Sky: Spiritual, Mystical, and Philosophical Poems in Translation, New Directions, New York, 1999.
- Border of a Dream: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon PressCopper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
, 2004.- Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, (bilingual edition), Translated with an Introduction, Boston: Shambhala Books, 2004.- Sweetbitter Love: Poems of Sappho, A New Translation, Translated by Willis Barnstone, With Epilogue and Metrical Guide by William McCulloh, 2006.
- The Poems of Mao Zedong
Mao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, Introduction, Translations, and Notes, University of California PressUniversity of California PressUniversity of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 2008.- The Complete Poems of Sappho,, Translated with an Introduction, Boston: Shambhala Books, 2009.
- Ancient Greek Lyrics, Translated by Willis Barnstone with an Introduction by William McCulloh, Indiana University Press, 2009.
- Love Poems by Pedro Salinas: My Voice Because of You and Letter Poems to Katherine, Translated with an Introduction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
- Café de l'Aube à Paris, Dawn Café in Paris: Poems Composed in French + Their Translation in English, Riverdale-on-Hudson: Sheep Meadow Pres, 2011.
Anthologies and Editions
- Rinconete y Cortadillo by Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
Edited by Willis Barnstone and Hugh Harter. New York: Las Americas, 1960.- Modern European Poetry, Willis Barnstone; Individual sections edited by Kimon Friar
Kimon FriarKimon Friar was a Greek-American poet and translator of Greek poetry.-Youth and education:Friar was born in 1911 in Imrali, Ottoman Empire, to an American father and a Greek mother. In 1915, the family moved to the United States and Friar became an American citizen in 1920...
, Greek Poetry; Patricia Terry, French Poetry; Arthur Wensinger, German Poetry; George Reavy, Russian Poetry; Sonia Raiziss and Alfred de Palchi, Italian Poetry; Angel Flores, Spanish Poetry. New York: Bantam Books (Bantam Classics), 1966.- Concrete Poetry
Concrete poetryConcrete poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on....
: A World View, Edited by Mary Ellen SoltMary Ellen SoltMary Ellen Solt, née Bottom was an American concrete poet. Her work was most notably poems in the shape of flowers such as "Forsythia", "Lilac", and"Geranium"...
and Willis Barnstone, Introduction by Mary Ellen Solt, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.- Eighteen Texts: Writings by Contemporary Greek Authors, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
- A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone, New York: Schocken Books, 1980; 2nd edition edition. New York: Schocken Books/Pantheon, 1992.
- The Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Willis Barnstone and Tony Barnstone. New York: Prentice Hall, 1998.
- Literatures of Latin America, New York: Prentice Hall, 2002.
- Literatures of the Middle East, Tony Barnstone and Willis Barnstone, New York: Penguin-Putnam, 2002.
Fellowships
- Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, Madrid, Spain, 1961-62.- American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned SocietiesThe American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
, Athens, Greece, 1968-69.- Fulbright Senior Teaching Fellowship, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1975-76.
- National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
(senior research fellowship), New York, 1979-80.- Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Madrid, Cantabria, Spain, 1981-2.
- National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, Madrid, Spain, 1983-84.- Fulbright Senior Teaching Fellowship, Beijing, China, 1984-85.
Awards
- Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
Nomination for poetry for From This White Island, Bookman, N.Y., 1960.- Cecil Hemley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1968.- A Breakthrough Book for China Poems, University of Missouri Press
University of Missouri PressThe University of Missouri Press is a university press founded in 1958 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.-External links:*...
, 1971.- Indiana University Writers Conference Award for the Most Distinguished Work of Children's Literature for A Day in the Country, Poems by Willis Barnstone, Pictures by Howard Knotts, Harper & Row, 1971.
- Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
Nomination for Poetry for China Poems, University of Missouri PressUniversity of Missouri PressThe University of Missouri Press is a university press founded in 1958 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.-External links:*...
, 1977.- Lucille Medwick Memorial Award for God of the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1978.- Colorado Quarterly Annual Poetry Award for Stickball on 88th Street, 1978.
- Gustav Davidson
Gustav DavidsonGustav Davidson was a poet, writer, and publisher.Davidson attended Columbia University in New York City and worked for the Library of Congress.-Works:...
Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of AmericaPoetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1980.- Chicago Review
Chicago ReviewThe Chicago Review is a literary magazine published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize...
Annual Award for Best Poem of the Year, 1980.- Bowdoin College
Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
Doctor of Letters, 1981.- Lucille Medwick Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1982.- Emily Dickinson
Emily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
Award of the Poetry Society of AmericaPoetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1985.- W. H. Auden
W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
Award of the New York State Council on the ArtsNew York State Council on the ArtsThe New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...
, 1986.- Gustav Davidson
Gustav DavidsonGustav Davidson was a poet, writer, and publisher.Davidson attended Columbia University in New York City and worked for the Library of Congress.-Works:...
Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of AmericaPoetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, 1988.- National Poetry Competition
National Poetry CompetitionThe National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978. It is run by the UK-based Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition each year...
Award of the Chester. H. Jones Foundation, 1988.- PEN American Center
PEN American CenterPEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
/ Book of the Month ClubBook of the Month ClubThe Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
Translation Award for Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet, 1994.- Choice
ChoiceChoice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options , often a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action...
’s “Outstanding Academic Book, 1993” for Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet, 1994.- Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
Nomination for Poetry for The Secret Reader. 501 Sonnets University Press of New England, 1996.- Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
Nomination for Poetry for Algebra of Night: New & Selected Poems 1948-1998, 2000.- Midland Authors Award in Poetry, for Algebra of Night: New & Selected Poems 1948-1998, 2000.
- Lannan Literary Awards
Lannan Literary AwardsThe Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality", according to the foundation...
, 2003 for Border of a Dream: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, 2004.- Northern California Book Awards for Border of a Dream: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, 2004.
- American Literary Translators Association
American Literary Translators AssociationThe American Literary Translators Association is an association of literary translators in the United States.ALTA is affiliated with the International Federation of Translators .-History:ALTA was founded in 1978....
30th Anniversary Honors Award, November 9, 2007.
External links
- http://www.willisbarnstone.com
- http://www.barnstone.com
- http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R912161000
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Barnstone_Translation_Prize
- http://www.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinmagazine/archives/features/001541.shtml
- http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/events/archives/002496.shtml
- http://www.indiana.edu/~alldrp/members/barnstone.html
- http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/willis_barnstone/index.shtml
- http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-six-masters-of-spanish-sonnet.html
- http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/20100503150900735