Robert Fagles (1933–2008)
Author of Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays
About the Author
Translator and professor Robert Fagles was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1933. He received a BA in English from Amherst College and a PhD in English from Yale University. While obtaining his degrees, he studied Latin and Greek on the side. He taught at Yale for one year and show more then joined the faculty at Princeton University as an English professor and remained there until he retired in 2002. While at Princeton, he created the university's department of comparative literature and received an honorary doctorate in June 2007. He was also a renowned translator of Latin and Greek. His first published translation was of the Greek poet Bacchylides (1961), which was followed by versions of The Oresteia by Aeschylus and the plays, Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. Fagles was best known for his versions of The Iliad (1990), The Odyssey (1996) and The Aeneid (2006). Instead of being an exacting literal translator, he sought to reinterpret the classics in a contemporary idiom which gave his translations a narrative energy and verve. He died of prostate cancer on March 26, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Robert Fagles, 2006.
Works by Robert Fagles
Associated Works
Antigone / Oedipus Rex / Oedipus at Colonus (0442) — Translator, some editions — 13,536 copies, 51 reviews
The Oresteia: Agamemnon / The Libation Bearers / The Eumenides (0458) — Translator, some editions; Editor, some editions — 10,623 copies, 72 reviews
Sunlight on the River: Poems About Paintings, Paintings About Poems (2015) — Contributor — 10 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Fagles, Robert
- Birthdate
- 1933-09-11
- Date of death
- 2008-03-26
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Place of death
- Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Cause of death
- prostate cancer
- Places of residence
- Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Education
- Amherst College (BA|1955)
Yale University (MA|1956|Ph.D|1959) - Occupations
- translator
professor
classicist
poet
comparative literature scholar - Organizations
- Princeton University
- Awards and honors
- National Humanities Medal (2006)
PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation (1997)
Harold Morton Landon Translation Award (1991)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Literature (1996)
American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1994)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998) (show all 7)
American Philosophical Society (1997) - Agent
- Georges Borchardt
Cindy Klein
Members
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Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 82
- Popularity
- #220,761
- Rating
- 4.0
- ISBNs
- 4
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 2