George Steiner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George Steiner
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Steiner speaking at the Nexus Institute, The Netherlands, 2013
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| Born | Francis George Steiner April 23, 1929 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Died | February 3, 2020 (aged 90) Cambridge, England |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | French, American |
| Education | University of Chicago (BA) Harvard University (MA) Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil) |
| Period | 1960–2020 |
| Genre | History, literature, literary fiction |
| Notable works | After Babel (1975) |
| Notable awards | Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) |
| Spouse |
Zara Steiner
(m. 1955) |
| Children | 2 |
Francis George Steiner (born April 23, 1929 – died February 3, 2020) was a famous writer, teacher, and thinker. He was known for his work as a literary critic, someone who studies and writes about books and literature. He also wrote essays, novels, and taught at universities.
Steiner was born in France but also became an American citizen. He wrote a lot about how language, books, and society are connected. He also explored the lasting effects of the Holocaust, a terrible event in history. Many people admired Steiner, calling him one of the "great minds in today's literary world." He was known for being able to speak many languages and for knowing a lot about many different subjects.
He taught at several important universities, including the University of Geneva, the University of Oxford, and Harvard University.
Contents
Early Life and Education
George Steiner was born in Paris, France, in 1929. His parents, Else and Frederick Georg Steiner, were Jewish and originally from Vienna, Austria. He had an older sister named Ruth Lilian.
Five years before George was born, his father moved the family from Austria to France. He wanted to escape the growing danger of anti-Semitism, which is hatred or discrimination against Jewish people. His father believed that Jewish people were "endangered guests wherever they went." Because of this, he made sure his children learned many languages. George grew up speaking three languages: German, English, and French. His mother was also good at many languages and would often mix them when she spoke.
When George was six, his father taught him to read the ancient Greek epic poem, the Iliad, in its original language. His mother helped him overcome a challenge he was born with: a weak right arm. Instead of letting him use only his left hand, she made sure he used his right hand as much as possible.
George first went to school at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris. In 1940, during World War II, his father was in New York City for work. He got permission for his family to join him there. George, his mother, and his sister left Europe by ship. Just a month after they moved, the Nazis took over Paris. Sadly, out of all the Jewish children in George's class, only two survived the war. His father's quick thinking saved their lives. This experience deeply affected Steiner and made him feel like a survivor. He later said, "My whole life has been about death, remembering and the Holocaust." He finished school at the Lycée Français de New York and became a United States citizen in 1944.
After high school, Steiner went to the University of Chicago. He studied literature, math, and physics, earning his first degree in 1948. He then got a master's degree from Harvard University in 1950. Later, he studied at Balliol College, Oxford, in England, with a special scholarship.
While working on his doctoral degree at Oxford, Steiner took a break. He taught English at Williams College and wrote for The Economist, a newspaper in London. During this time, he met Zara Shakow. They married in 1955, the same year he earned his doctorate from Oxford. They had two children, David and Deborah. George Steiner lived in Cambridge, England, for many years. His wife, Zara, passed away just ten days after him in 2020.
Career and Teaching
In 1956, Steiner returned to the United States. He worked as a scholar in Princeton, New Jersey, and also taught in Austria. In 1959, he became a special lecturer at Princeton. In 1961, he became one of the first fellows at Churchill College, Cambridge, in England.
At first, some people at Cambridge did not welcome Steiner. Some teachers did not like his strong ideas or his focus on the Holocaust in his lectures. At that time, many in Britain did not feel a direct connection to the Holocaust. Steiner had chances to teach in the United States, but his father wanted him to stay in Europe. His father felt that if Steiner left, it would be like letting Hitler win, who had wanted no one with their name left in Europe. So, Steiner stayed in England.
After working as a freelance writer for a few years, Steiner became a professor at the University of Geneva in 1974. He taught there for 20 years, using four different languages. He believed that to truly understand your own language, you need to know other languages too. He retired from Geneva in 1994. He also held important teaching positions at Oxford and Harvard universities.
Steiner was known as a very smart and thoughtful critic. He wrote many articles and reviews for newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker for over thirty years. Even though he took his work very seriously, he also had a quiet sense of humor. Once, when asked if he ever read anything silly as a child, he joked, "Moby-Dick."
Steiner's Ideas
George Steiner was considered a "polymath," meaning he had a deep understanding of many different subjects. He believed that a truly educated person should know about both arts and sciences. He thought that nationalism, or extreme loyalty to one's own country, could lead to violence.
A main idea for Steiner was his surprise that people can use language for both good and bad. He wondered how human speech could be used "to love, to build, to forgive, and also to torture, to hate, to destroy and to annihilate."
Steiner also had some strong views on tolerance. He believed that tolerance might not always be as strong as people think. He suggested that it's easy to say you are tolerant, but it can be harder when faced with difficult situations.
Important Books
Steiner wrote many books and essays over 50 years. He often wrote about modern Western culture, language, and how language was affected after the Holocaust. His work often explored how different cultures and ideas connect, especially focusing on translation and the nature of language and literature.
His first book, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in Contrast (1960), compared the ideas of two famous Russian writers. The Death of Tragedy (1961) looked at plays from ancient Greece to the mid-1900s.
One of his most famous books is After Babel (1975). This book was very important for the study of translation. It was even made into a TV show.
Steiner also wrote fictional stories. These include short story collections and a novel called The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (1981). This novel tells the story of people searching for Adolf Hitler in the jungle many years after World War II. It explored difficult ideas about history and evil.
Other works include No Passion Spent (1996), a collection of essays on various topics, and Errata: An Examined Life (1997), which is about his own life. Grammars of Creation (2001) explored subjects from the universe to poetry.
Awards and Honors
George Steiner received many awards and honors for his important work. Some of these include:
- A special scholarship called a Rhodes Scholarship (1950)
- The Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French Government (1984), which is a very high honor
- The Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award (1998)
- The Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities (2001)
- Being made a Fellow of the British Academy (1998) and the Royal Academy of Arts
He also received many honorary degrees from universities around the world, meaning they recognized his achievements without him having to study there. These included degrees from the University of East Anglia, University of Leuven, Mount Holyoke College, Bristol University, University of Glasgow, University of Liège, University of Ulster, Durham University, University of Salamanca, Queen Mary University of London, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, and the University of Lisbon.
For his fiction and poetry, he won awards like:
- Remembrance Award (1974)
- PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award (1992)
- PEN/Macmillan Fiction Prize (1993)
- JQ Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction (1997)
See also
In Spanish: George Steiner para niños
