James Robert Hightower

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James Robert Hightower
Born(1915-05-07)May 7, 1915
Sulphur, Oklahoma, United States
DiedJanuary 8, 2006(2006-01-08) (aged 90)
Herscheid, Germany
EducationHarvard University (A.M., Ph.D.)
University of Colorado Boulder (B.A.)
Scientific career
FieldsChinese poetry, translation
Academic advisorsSerge Elisséeff
Achilles Fang
Notable studentsDavid R. Knechtges
Victor H. Mair
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Hǎi Táowěi
Gwoyeu RomatzyhHae Taurwoei
Wade–GilesHai T'ao-wei

James Robert Hightower (7 May 1915 – 8 January 2006) was an American sinologist. He was a professor of Chinese at Harvard University who specialized in the translation of Chinese literature. Although he spent his youth in Colorado, Hightower lived most of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts studying and teaching at Harvard.

Life

Hightower was born to Loris Denzil and Berta (née McKedy) Hightower in Sulphur, Oklahoma, where Loris worked as a school principal. Hightower's mother died two years later in 1917, prompting his father to return home to Salida, Colorado to take up a position as school superintendent.[1]

After completing high school, Hightower entered the

Sorbonne and met James Joyce, before returning to the US in autumn 1937.[1]

In late 1937, Hightower entered Harvard University's Department of Far Eastern Languages as a graduate student in Chinese. He received an

Shandong Province in 1943. After several tense months, Hightower was freed in a Japanese-American prisoner exchange and returned to the United States, having smuggled out his dissertation hidden inside the walls of a large thermos. He spent the remainder of World War II in Washington, D.C. working on Japanese military codes under Edwin O. Reischauer.[1]

Hightower returned to Harvard after the conclusion of World War II and completed his

Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1946.[2] His dissertation, a translation and study of the Han shi waizhuan (Outer Commentary on the Han Book of Songs), was published in 1952. Hightower's first major publication, Topics in Chinese Literature, was the first large-scale history of Chinese literature in a Western language.[3]

Selected works

  • Topics in Chinese Literature: Outlines and Bibliographies (1950). Harvard-Yenching Institute Series, Volume III. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, rpt. 1953.
  • Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying's Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs (1952). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien (1970). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • (with Chia-ying Yeh) Studies in Chinese Poetry (1998). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center.
  • —— (1973). "Yuan Chen and the 'Story of Yingying'". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 33: 90–123.
    JSTOR 2718886
    .

References

  1. ^ a b c E. Bruce Brooks, in "Speeches at a Memorial Gathering", James R. Hightower Memorial Service, 2 Divinity Avenue, Harvard University (14 October 2006).
  2. ^ Eva S. Moseley, "James Robert Hightower dies at 90" Archived 2014-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, Harvard University Gazette (2 March 2006), accessed 12 June 2013.
  3. ^ Hanan, et al., "Memorial Minute – James Robert Hightower (1915–2006)", Minutes of Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University (1 May 2007).
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