Literary critic, translator, and educator, born in New York City, New York, USA. A Columbia University PhD, he joined its faculty (1954) and became the leading Western expert on Japanese literature. His critical and historical studies and translations introduced Westerners to Japanese writing and earned him the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun (1976).
see 'Major Plays of Chikamatsu) Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko (Columbia Univ Pr, June 1, 1967) Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, a Puppet Play (Columbia Univ Pr, April 1, 1971 Mishima Yukio, Five Modern No Plays (Tuttle, 1967) Mishima Yukio, After the Banquet (Random House Inc, January 1, 1973) Basho, The Narrow Road to Oku (Kodansha Amer Inc, April 1, 1997) Kawabata Yasunari, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Kodansha Amer Inc, September 1, 1998) Abe Kobo, Three Plays (Columbia Univ Pr, February 1, 1997) Donald Keene & Oda Makoto, The Breaking Jewel, Keene, Donald (trans) (Columbia Univ Pr, March 1, 2003 Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human (New Directions, 1958) Dazai Osamu, The Setting Sun(Tuttle, 1981)Editor
Anthology of Japanese Literature from the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century (Grove Pr, March 1, 1960) Anthology of Chinese Literature: From the 14th Century to the Present Day (co-editor with Cyril Birch) (Grove Pr, June 1, 1987) Love Songs from the Man'Yoshu (Kodansha Amer Inc, August 1, 2000)Works in English
The Battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's Puppet Play, Its Background and Importance (Taylor's Foreign Pr, 1951) Japanese Literature an Introduction for Western Readers (Grove Pr, June 1, 1955) Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology (Grove Pr, June 1, 1956) Major Plays of Chikamatsu (Columbia Univ Pr, January 1, 1961) Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu (Columbia Univ Pr, June 1, 1961) Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830 (Stanford Univ Pr, June 1, 1969) Twenty Plays of the No Theatre (Columbia Univ Pr, June 1, 1970) World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867 (Henry Holt & Co, October 1, 1976) -(Second book in his "A History of Japanese Literature" series) Some Japanese Portraits (Kodansha Amer Inc, March 1, 1979) Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era (Henry Holt & Plutschow, Introducing Kyoto (Kodansha Amer Inc, April 1, 1989) Travelers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese As Revealed Through 1, 000 Years of Diaries (Diane Pub Co, June 1, 1989) Modern Japanese Novels and the West (Umi Research Pr, July 1, 1989) No and Bunraku: Two Forms of Japanese Theatre (Columbia Univ Pr, December 1, 1990) Appreciations of Japanese Culture (Kodansha Amer Inc, April 1, 1991 Donald Keene with Ooka Makoto, The Colors of Poetry: Essays in Classic Japanese Verse (Katydid Books, May 1, 1991 Travelers of a Hundred Ages (Henry Holt & Co, March 1, 1995) The Blue-Eyed Tarokaja: A Donald Keene Anthology (Columbia Univ Pr, June 1, 1996 On Familiar Terms: To Japan and Back, a Lifetime Across Cultures (Kodansha Amer Inc, April 1, 1996) Donald Keene with Anne Nishimura & Ann Yonemura, Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne Van Biema Collection (Univ of Washington Pr, September 1, 2002) Five Modern Japanese Novelists (Columbia Univ Pr, December 1, 2002) Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan (Columbia Univ Pr, November 1, 2003)Honorary degrees
Keene has been awarded eight honorary doctorate degrees, from:
Kyoto Sangyo University (Kyoto, 2002) Keiwa Gakuen College (Niigata, 2000) Tokyo Gaikokugo Daigaku (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) (Tokyo, 1999) Waseda University (Tokyo, 1998) Tohoku University (Sendai, 1997) Columbia University (New York, 1997) Middlebury College (Vermont, 1995) St. Andrews Presbyterian College (North Carolina, 1990)Awards and commendations
Keene has also received a number of awards and commendations, including:
Kikuchi Kan Prize (Kikuchi Kan Shō Society for the Advancement of Japanese Culture), 1962 Van Ameringen Distinguished Book Award, 1967 Kokusai Shuppan Bunka Shō Taishō, 1969 Kokusai Shuppan Bunka Shō, 1971 The Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class (Japanese Government), 1975 Yamagata Banto Prize (Yamagata Bantō Shō), 1983 The Japan Foundation Award (Kokusai Kōryū Kikin Shō), 1983 Yomiuri Literary Prize (Yomiuri Bungaku Shō), 1985 (Keene was the first non-Japanese to receive this prize, for a book of literary criticism (Travellers of a Hundred Ages) in Japanese) Award for Excellence (Graduate Faculties Alumni of Columbia University), 1985 Nihon Bungaku Taishō, 1985 Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University named in Keene's honour, 1986 Tōkyō-to Bunka Shō, 1987 NBCC (The National Book Critics Circle) Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing, 1990 The Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (Fukuoka Ajia Bunka Shō), 1991 Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) Hōsō Bunka Shō, 1993 The Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class (Japanese Government), 1993 Inoue Yasushi Bunka Shō (Inoue Yasushi Kinen Bunka Zaidan), 1995 The Distinguished Achievement Award (from The Tokyo American Club) #65288;for the lifetime achievements and unique contribution to international relations）, 1995 Award of Honor (from The Japan Society of Northern California), 1996 Asahi Award, 1997 Person of Cultural Merit (Bunka Kōrōsha) (Japanese Government), 2002 (Keene is the third non-Japanese person to be designated "an individual of distinguished cultural service" by the Japanese government) Mainichi Shuppan Bunka Shō (The Mainichi Newspapers), 2002 The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, 2003
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