William Elliot Griffis

Born in Philadelphia in 1843, William Elliot Griffis was educated at Rutgers and later became one of the early Western teachers invited to Japan during the Meiji era. He taught there in the 1870s, an experience that deeply shaped his writing and helped make him one of the best-known American interpreters of Japan for readers back home.

Over a long career, he wrote extensively on Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, religion, and world history. His books include travel writing, biographies, and studies of East Asia, and they reflect both his enthusiasm as a popular explainer and the outlook of his time.

Griffis died in 1928, but his work remains useful as a window into how Americans first encountered modern Japan and Korea in print. For listeners interested in cultural exchange, nineteenth-century travel, and early Western writing on East Asia, his life and books offer a fascinating historical perspective.