• Source: Ivan Morris

      • Ivan Ira Esme Morris (29 November 1925 – 19 July 1976) was an English writer, translator and editor in the field of Japanese studies.


      Biography


      Ivan Morris was born in London, of mixed American and Swedish parentage to Edita Morris (née Toll) and Ira Victor Morris (son of diplomat Ira Nelson Morris and grandson of meat-packer Nelson Morris). He studied at Gordonstoun, before graduating from Phillips Academy. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received a doctorate at the SOAS University of London, specializing in Oriental languages. As an intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy, Morris was one of the first interpreters sent into Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
      Morris wrote widely on modern and ancient Japan and translated numerous classical and modern literary works. He personally knew writer Yukio Mishima and translated some of his writings. Morris' book The Nobility of Failure is dedicated to Mishima's memory. His translation of The Pillow Book Sei Shonagon was probably his most significant translation from Classical Japanese, and his The World of the Shining Prince, a description of the Heian court culture at the time of The Tale of Genji, is probably his most important single scholarly work.
      Morris joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1960 and was chairman of the department of East Asian languages and cultures from 1966 to 1969. In 1966 he was elected a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. He helped founding Amnesty International USA and was the first chair of its board of directors from 1973 to 1976.
      Ivan Morris died of heart failure in Bologna, Italy, on 19 July 1976.


      Personal life


      Morris was married three times. His second wife was Japanese ballet dancer Ayako Ogawa, his third wife Japanese writer Nobuko Uenishi.


      Selected works




      = As writer

      =
      Nationalism and the Right Wing in Japan: A Study of Postwar Trends, Oxford University Press, 1960
      The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, Alfred A. Knopf, 1964
      Dictionary of Selected Forms in Classical Japanese Literature, Columbia University Press, 1966
      The Tale of Genji Scroll, Kodansha, 1971
      The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975


      = As translator

      =
      The Crazy Iris, by Masuji Ibuse, Encounter, Vol. 6 no. 5, 1956
      As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, by Sarashina Nikki, The Dial Press, 1971
      The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, Oxford University Press, 1967
      The Journey, by Jirō Osaragi, Charles E. Tuttle, 1967
      The Life of an Amorous Woman, by Ihara Saikaku, Unesco/New Directions Books, 1963
      The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, by Yukio Mishima, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959
      Fires on the Plain, by Shōhei Ōoka, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1957
      The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love, by Yukio Mishima, in: Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1966
      Swaddling Clothes, by Yukio Mishima, in: Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1966


      = As editor

      =
      Modern Japanese Stories, Charles E. Tuttle, 1962
      Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, by Masao Maruyama, Oxford University Press, 1963
      Japan, 1931–45: Militarism, Fascism, Japanism?, Heath, 1963
      The Pillow-Book Puzzles, Bodley Head, 1969
      Madly Singing in the Mountains: an Appreciation and Anthology of Arthur Waley, Walker, 1970


      References




      External links


      "Ivan Morris". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 4 October 2021.

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