Stephen Greenblatt (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Also General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, he is the author of eleven books, including Tyrant, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (winner of the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize); Shakespeare's Freedom; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World; Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture; and Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. He has edited seven collections of criticism, including Cultural Mobility: A Manifesto, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. His honors include the MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize, for both Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England and The Swerve, the Sapegno Prize, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale University Graduate School, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, the Erasmus Institute Prize, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the Modern Language Association of America and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Arcadia—Accademia Letteraria Italiana.
"With all his usual clarity and freshness, one of our foremost
literary historians and critics sets out a comprehensive picture of
how a story foundational for European civilization developed, from
its origins in western Asia to its much-contested place in the
post-Darwinian world… This is a rich, learned, lively book, which
should engage all who are interested in the history of our
imagination and the interweavings of faith, poetics, and
philosophy."
*Rowan Williams, former archbishop of Canterbury*
"A rare combination of wide-ranging erudition with verve of
exposition. Even the most familiar materials are seen in a fresh,
and humane, light. This is a book that makes one understand why old
myths matter, even when they perceived unblinkingly as myths."
*Robert Alter, author of Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King
James Bible*
"Bare then clothed, innocent then ashamed, blessed then cursed,
sheltered then exiled. Stephen Greenblatt tracks Adam and Eve from
an astute reading of the ancient origins of their story through a
serendipitous tour of their afterlife in Jewish, Christian, and
sometimes Muslim art, literature, and philosophy down to their
post-Darwinian persistence in our own time. Endlessly illuminating
and a sheer pleasure to read."
*Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography and general editor of The
Norton Anthology of World Religions*
"[A]lmost dizzying in its scope; Greenblatt draws from history,
religion, art and science, and he writes about all of these fields
with infectious enthusiasm. It's a strikingly intelligent book, but
it's also accessible; he's a clear, unpretentious writer who can
hardly hide his fascination with the subject."
*Michael Schaub - NPR Books*
"Most modern theories of human civilisation are, fundamentally,
about the need to deal with mortality. Stephen Greenblatt’s
thrilling new book, however, on the peregrinations of the story of
Adam and Eve – the world’s most influential attempt to arrest the
infinite regress of creation – shows just how central the question
of human origins has been to pre-scientific conceptions of
humanity."
*Tim Whitmarsh - Guardian*
"Greenblatt’s particular genius is in synthesizing a vast array of
knowledge, connecting the dots between anthropology, archaeology,
biology, theology, history, philosophy, art and literature. . . .
In The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve he does this brilliantly,
creating a compelling and nuanced account."
*Patricia L. Hagen - Minneapolis StarTribune*
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