author
L. (Launcelot) Cranmer-Byng
1872–1945
Best known for bringing classical Chinese writing to English readers, this poet, translator, and sinologist helped popularize Eastern literature in the early twentieth century. His work ranges from versions of Confucius and Chinese poetry to original verse shaped by the literary experiments of his time.
1 Audiobook
A Lute of Jade : Selections from the Classical Poets of China
by L. (Launcelot) Cranmer-Byng
About the author
Born on 23 November 1872, Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng was an English author, poet, and sinologist. He is especially remembered for introducing English-language readers to classical Chinese literature, and for helping make that work accessible beyond a small scholarly audience.
Cranmer-Byng translated and adapted a wide range of material, including writings associated with Confucius and collections of Chinese poetry. His books became closely linked with the early twentieth-century appetite for world literature, and they helped shape how many readers first encountered Chinese thought and verse in English.
He was also part of a broader literary world that reached beyond translation alone. Scholarship on his career describes him as active from the 1890s into the 1930s, with work connected to French, Portuguese, and Chinese traditions as well as English Symbolism. He died on 15 January 1945.