George Steiner
Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, as well as the impact of the Holocaust. A 2001 article in The Guardian described Steiner as a "polyglot and polymath".
George Steiner | |
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Steiner speaking at the Nexus Institute, the Netherlands, 2013 | |
| Born | Francis George Steiner April 23, 1929 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Died | February 3, 2020 (aged 90) Cambridge, England |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | French, American |
| Education | University of Chicago (BA) Harvard University (MA) Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil) |
| Period | 1960–2020 |
| Genre | History, literature, literary fiction |
| Notable works | After Babel (1975) |
| Notable awards | Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) |
| Spouse |
Zara Shakow (m. 1955) |
| Children | 2 |
Among his admirers, Steiner is ranked "among the great minds in today's literary world". English novelist A. S. Byatt described him as a "late, late, late Renaissance man ... a European metaphysician with an instinct for the driving ideas of our time". Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature director of the British Council, described him as a "magnificent lecturer – prophetic and doom-laden [who would] turn up with half a page of scribbled notes, and never refer to them".
Steiner was Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the University of Geneva (1974–94), Professor of Comparative Literature and Fellow in the University of Oxford (1994–95), Professor of Poetry in Harvard University (2001–02) and an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.