Robert Alter

Robert Alter was born in a Jewish American family, and first learned Hebrew as part of his religious upbringing.{{cite news |last1=York |first1=Hershael |title=Robert Alter's Landmark Work Sheds Fresh Light on Old Testament |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/hebrew-bible-robert-alter/ |access-date=6 February 2025 |work=The Gospel Coalition |date=13 March 2019}} earned his bachelor's degree in English (Columbia University, 1957) and his master's degree (1958) and doctorate (1962) from Harvard University in comparative literature. 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{{cite book|title=The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary|last=Alter|first=Robert|year=2018|publisher=WW Norton & Co|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-29249-7}} translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. He lectures on topics ranging from biblical episodes{{vague|date=August 2023}} to Kafka's modernism and Hebrew literature.

One of Alter's contributions is the introduction of the type scene into contemporary scholarly Hebrew Bible studies. An example of a type scene is that of a man meeting a young woman at a well, whom he goes on to marry; this scene occurs twice in Genesis and once in Exodus, and, according to Alter, distortedly{{clarify|date=August 2023}} in 1 Samuel and the Book of Ruth.{{cite book|title=The Art of Biblical Narrative|last=Alter|first=Robert|year=1981|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=0-465-00427-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780465004270/page/60 60]}}

Alter has served as an active member of the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress and as the president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1966 and 1978.{{cite web|title=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation A Fellows Page|url=http://www.gf.org/afellow.html|access-date=2008-02-09 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071120102550/http://www.gf.org/afellow.html |archive-date = 2007-11-20}} He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986. In 2001, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+Alter&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-10-19|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He was a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, and Old Dominion fellow at Princeton University. He is a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books.

Alter is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2009, he received the Robert Kirsch Award (Los Angeles Times) for lifetime contribution to American letters.{{cite web|url=http://berkeley.edu/news/in_news/archives/20090422.shtml |title=Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=2009-04-22 |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509083513/http://berkeley.edu/news/in_news/archives/20090422.shtml |archive-date=9 May 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/poetic_master_of_biblical_translation_receives_award_20090422/|title=Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award|work=Jewish Journal|date=2009-04-22|access-date=2009-05-08}} He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by Yale University in 2010.{{cite web|title=Citations for Recipients of Honorary Degrees at Yale University 2010|url=http://news.yale.edu/2010/05/24/citations-recipients-honorary-degrees-yale-university-2010|website=Yale News|date=24 May 2010}} He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of Hebrew University (2015).{{Cite web|url=https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/director-receives-degree-honor-hebrew-university-90th-celebration|title=Director Receives Degree in Honor of Hebrew University 90th Celebration | Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology}}

His book The Art of Biblical Narrative won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought.{{cite web|url=http://wupa.wustl.edu/asmbly/bio/Alter |title=Robert Alter |publisher=Washington University in St. Louis |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704185718/http://wupa.wustl.edu/asmbly/bio/Alter |archive-date=4 July 2008 }} In 2005, his translation of the five Books of Moses won the PEN Literary Award for Translation.{{cite web |url=https://pen.org/literary-awards/literary-awards-winners-archive/ |title=Literary Awards Winners Archive}}

• Berkeley Citation (2010){{cite web | url=https://awards.berkeley.edu/berkeley-citation/recipients | title=Berkeley Citation – Past Recipients | Berkeley Awards }}

;Translations of the Hebrew Bible

• The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1999, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-32077-4}}
• The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, 2004, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-01955-1}}
• The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, 2007, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|978-0-393-06226-7}}
• The Book of Genesis, translation by Robert Alter, illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009, W.W. Norton (first edition, 1996), {{ISBN|0-393-06102-7}}
• The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary, 2010, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-06812-9}}
• Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary, 2013, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-08269-5}}
• Strong As Death Is Love: Song of Songs Ruth Esther Jonah And Daniel: A Translation with Commentary, 2015, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-24304-4}}
• The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 2018, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-29249-5}}

;Other works

• Rogue's Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel, 1965, Harvard University Press
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=b7jX29_p-5IC Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre], 1975, University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-02755-8}}
• [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674535756 A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal], in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1979, Basic Books, {{ISBN|0-465-04124-8}}
• The Art of Biblical Narrative, 1981, Basic Books, {{ISBN|0-465-00427-X}}
• [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674587625 Motives for Fiction], 1984, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-58762-5}}
• The Art of Biblical Poetry, 1985, Basic Books, {{ISBN|0-465-00431-8}}
• [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674875319 The Literary Guide to the Bible] Edited by Alter and Frank Kermode, 1987, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-87531-9}}
• 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, {{ISBN|0-393-31499-5}}
• [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674606630 Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem], 1991, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-60663-0}}
• Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Novel, 2005, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0-300-10802-8}}
• Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible, 2010, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-12881-2}}
• The Art of Bible Translation, 2019, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0691181493}}
• Nabokov and the Real World: Between Appreciation and Defense, 2021, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-21193-0}}
• Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, 2023, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0-300-25017-7}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Alter/AlterCV.html CV on UCBerkeley's website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100530063305/http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/bio/Alter.htm Biography at Washington University in St. Louis]
• [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/01/041101crbo_books The Five Books of Moses review at The New Yorker]
• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52962-2004Oct21.html The Five Books of Moses review at The Washington Post]
• [http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/robert-alter8217s-fidelity-6 The Five Books of Moses review] by Alan Jacobs in First Things (Aug/Sept. 2005)
• [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/10/01/071001crbo_books_wood The Book of Psalms review at The New Yorker]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120508070823/http://radio.nationalreview.com/betweenthecovers/post/?q=MjgwYmVlZDdmNzFkOTQ5ODI1Yjk5OTM1ODk1NDE0ODc= Audio interview with Robert Alter]
• [http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/robert-alter Robert Alter's articles in the London Review of Books]
• The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols., [https://www.momentmag.com/book-review-the-hebrew-bible-a-translation-with-commentary-3-vols-by-robert-alter/ reviewed] by Gary A. Rendsburg at Moment Magazine
• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/genesis.htm Sample chapter] of Alter's translation of Genesis

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1935 births

Category:Living people

Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:American biblical scholars

Category:Jewish American academics

Category:Translators of the Bible into English

Category:Jewish translators of the Bible

Category:Translators from Hebrew

Category:Hebrew–English translators

Category:American literary critics

Category:Bible commentators

Category:Old Testament scholars

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:People from Albany, New York