W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz studied at Stanford University and later at Jesus College, Oxford. Early in his career he focused on Celtic traditions, collecting folklore in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man; that research became The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries in 1911.

He later traveled widely in Asia, especially in India, Sikkim, and Tibet, and became closely associated with the translation and editing of influential books on Tibetan Buddhism. He is best known as the editor of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and also published Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, and The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation.

Evans-Wentz’s books reached a large audience and played a major role in introducing Tibetan religious ideas to many Western readers in the first half of the twentieth century. Even when modern scholars debate parts of his interpretation, his work remains an important chapter in the history of how Asian spiritual traditions were presented in English.