Robert Bernard Alter (born 1935) is an American professor emeritus of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he has taught since 1967. He has published two dozen books, including an award-winning translation of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

as part of his religious upbringing. earned his bachelor's degree in English (

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, 1957) and his master's degree (1958) and doctorate (1962) from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He started his career as a writer at '' Commentary'', where he was for many years a contributing editor. He has written twenty-four books, including his three-thousand-page translation of the entire

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' He lectures on topics ranging from biblical episodes to

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of real ...

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews, mostly among the Arab cit ...

Biblical studies

One of Alter's contributions is the introduction of the type scene into contemporary

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

and once in Exodus, and, according to Alter, distortedly in

1 Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

and the

Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth (, ''Megillath Ruth'', "the Scroll of Ruth", one of the Five Megillot) is included in the third division, or the Writings ( Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the historical books ...

Honors

Alter has served as an active member of the Council of Scholars of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

and as the president of the

Association of Literary Scholars and Critics The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW) was organized in 1994 as the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics by a group of over 400 scholars troubled by what they saw as an over reliance on post-modern theory in the a ...

. He was a

Guggenheim fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

in 1966 and 1978. He was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1986. In 2001, he was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He was a senior fellow of the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, a fellow at the

Israel Institute for Advanced Studies The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (; IIAS, or IAS in Israel) is a research institute in Jerusalem, devoted to academic research in physics, mathematics, the life sciences, economics, and comparative religion. It is a self-governing body, ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and Old Dominion fellow at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. He is a member of the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of editors, writers, and other people who are charged with implementing a publication's approach to editorials and other opinion pieces. The editorials published normally represent the views or goals of the publicat ...

of the '' Jewish Review of Books''.

Selected Awards

Alter is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2009, he received the Robert Kirsch Award (''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'') for lifetime contribution to American letters. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 2010. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

(2015). His book '' The Art of Biblical Narrative'' won the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

for Jewish Thought. In 2005, his translation of the five Books of Moses won the PEN Literary Award for Translation. * Berkeley Citation (2010)

Selected works

;Translations of the Hebrew Bible * ''The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel'', 1999, W.W. Norton, * ''The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary'', 2004, W.W. Norton, * ''The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary'', 2007, W.W. Norton, * ''The Book of Genesis'', translation by Robert Alter, illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009, W.W. Norton (first edition, 1996), * ''The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary'', 2010, W.W. Norton, * ''Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary'', 2013, W.W. Norton, * ''Strong As Death Is Love: Song of Songs Ruth Esther Jonah And Daniel: A Translation with Commentary'', 2015, W.W. Norton, * '' The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary'', 2018, W.W. Norton, ;Other works * ''Rogue's Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel'', 1965, Harvard University Press *
Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre
', 1975, University of California Press,
''A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal''
in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1979, Basic Books, * '' The Art of Biblical Narrative'', 1981,

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and his ...

,
''Motives for Fiction''
1984,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

, * ''The Art of Biblical Poetry'', 1985, Basic Books,
''The Literary Guide to the Bible''
Edited by Alter and

Frank Kermode Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA (29 November 1919 – 17 August 2010) was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work '' The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction'' and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing. He wa ...

, 1987, Harvard University Press, * ''The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language Revolution'', 1988, University of Washington Press. * ''Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age'', 1990, W.W. Norton,
''Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem''
1991, Harvard University Press, * ''Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Novel'', 2005, Yale University Press, * ''Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible'', 2010,

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, * ''The Art of Bible Translation'', 2019, Princeton University Press, * ''Nabokov and the Real World: Between Appreciation and Defense'', 2021,

, * ''

Amos Oz Amos Oz (; born Amos Klausner (); 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onwards, Oz was a pro ...

: Writer, Activist, Icon'', 2023, Yale University Press,

References

External links

CV on UCBerkeley's website''The Five Books of Moses'' review at ''The New Yorker''
* ttp://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/robert-alter8217s-fidelity-6 ''The Five Books of Moses'' reviewby Alan Jacobs in ''First Things'' (Aug/Sept. 2005)
''The Book of Psalms'' review at ''The New Yorker''Audio interview with Robert AlterRobert Alter's articles in the ''London Review of Books''
*''The Hebrew Bible'', 3 vols.
reviewed
by Gary A. Rendsburg at Moment Magazine
Sample chapter
of Alter's translation of Genesis {{DEFAULTSORT:Alter, Robert 1935 births Living people Columbia College (New York) alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American biblical scholars Jewish American academics Translators of the Bible into English Jewish translators of the Bible Translators from Hebrew Hebrew–English translators American literary critics Bible commentators Old Testament scholars 21st-century American Jews Members of the American Philosophical Society People from Albany, New York