1. Donald Lawrence Keene was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature.
17 Facts About Donald Keene
1. 2.
Donald Lawrence Keene was born on June 18,1922 in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
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Donald Keene's father was an international trade businessman while his stay-at-home mother raised both Keene and his elder sister.
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When Donald Keene was seven years old, the Great Depression was beginning to gain momentum in the United States, which subsequently had a negative effect on his family.
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In July 1931, amid the economic crisis, a 9-year-old Donald Keene begged his father to allow him to accompany him on a business trip to Europe, to which his father agreed.
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In Paris, Donald Keene met a girl around the same age, but had a hard time talking to her due to a language barrier, but proceeded to sing to her Frere Jacques which was the only song he knew in French.
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Donald Keene attended the James Madison High School, while living with his mother, where he showed great academic achievement.
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Donald Keene than enrolled at Columbia University, where he received a bachelor's degree 1942, studying under Mark Van Doren, Moses Hadas, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun.
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Donald Keene studied for a year at Harvard University before transferring to Cambridge University as a Henry Fellow, where he earned a second master's and became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1948 to 1954, and a University Lecturer from 1949 to 1955.
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Donald Keene was a Japanologist who published about 25 books in English on Japanese topics, including both studies of Japanese literature and culture and translations of Japanese classical and modern literature, including a four-volume history of Japanese literature which has become a standard work.
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Donald Keene published about 30 books in Japanese, some of which have been translated from English.
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Donald Keene was president of the Donald Keene Foundation for Japanese Culture.
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Donald Keene was awarded the Order of Culture by the Japanese government in 2008, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Japanese Imperial Family in the country, becoming the first non-Japanese to receive the award.
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Donald Keene acquired Japanese citizenship, adopting the legal name.
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Donald Keene was well known and respected in Japan and his relocation there following the earthquake was widely lauded.
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In 2013 Donald Keene adopted shamisen player Seiki Uehara as a son.
17.
Donald Keene died of cardiac arrest in Tokyo on February 24,2019, aged 96.