author
Epiphanius Wilson
1845–1916
A prolific editor and translator of world literature, he helped introduce English-language readers to texts from China, India, Arabia, and other traditions. His books gathered sacred writings, poetry, and classic stories into accessible volumes for a wide general audience.
1 Audiobook
Introduction to the Dramas of Balzac
by Epiphanius Wilson, J. Walker (Joseph Walker) McSpadden
About the author
Born in 1845 and dying in 1916, Epiphanius Wilson was a British-born writer whose career ranged across religion, teaching, editing, and translation. Sources describe him as an author, poet, hymnist, missionary, classics professor, and later a rector in New York, with earlier periods spent in Newfoundland and Labrador and teaching in Nova Scotia.
He is best remembered for compiling and editing large anthologies of world literature around the turn of the twentieth century. His books on Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Hindu, Arabian, Turkish, Egyptian, and Babylonian or Assyrian literature brought together translations, introductions, and biographical sketches, helping many English-speaking readers encounter major texts from a wide range of cultures.
Though some catalog listings give extra biographical details, the clearest consistent picture is of a remarkably wide-ranging literary mediator: someone who gathered sacred texts, legends, poetry, and philosophy from many traditions and presented them in an inviting format for general readers.