About the Author

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Willis Barnstone was educated at Bowdoin, Columbia, the Sorbonne, and Yale. He taught in Greece at the end of the civil war (1949-51), and in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War. During the Cultural Revolution he went to China where he was later a Fulbright Professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University (1984-85). Former O'Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University, he is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish at Indiana University.
His publications include "Modern European Poetry " (Bantam, 1967), "The Other Bible "(HarperCollins, 1984), "Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice " (Yale, 1993), "Funny Ways of Staying Alive "(University Press of New England, 1993), "The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets " (University Press of New England, 1996), the memoir "With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires " (University of Illinois, 1993), "Algebra of Night: Selected Poems--1949-1998 " (Sheep Meadow, 1999), "The Apocalypse " (New Directions, 2000), "Life Watch "(BOA Editions, 2003), "Border of a Dream: Poems of Antonio Machado " (Copper Canyon, 2003), and "The Gnostic Bible " (Shambhala Publications, 2003).
A Guggenheim Fellow, his awards include a National Endowment for the Arts award, a National Endowment for the Humanities award, an Emily Dickinson Award of the Poetry Society of America, a W. H. Auden Award of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Midland Authors Award, three Book of the Month Selections and four Pulitzer Prize nominations for poetry. His work has appeared in "American Poetry Review, Doubletake, Harper's, New York Review of Books, Poetry, Paris Review Poetry, Partisan Review, "the "New Yorker, "and the "Times Literary Supplement."

Reviews

"Clear and luminous translations that capture the essence and poetic beauty of these iridescent texts. "Essential Gnostic Scriptures" provides further stepping-stones for seekers of wisdom and knowledge beyond the canonical testaments, or for those who are simply moved by great sacred poetry."--Jeffrey Henderson, Editor, Loeb Classical Library

"Fresh and remarkable readable translations of some of the most important gnostic books discovered in modern times, including the newly released Gospel of Judas. With its clear and up-to-date introduction to gnostics and their religion, "Essential Gnostic Scriptures" will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in one of the most important religious movements of the ancient world."--Bart D. Ehrman, author of "Jesus, Interrupted" and "Lost Christianities"