George Steiner Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on George Steiner

A polyglot intellectual who has published nonfiction on subjects as diverse as ancient Greek literature, the Russian novel, modernist poetry, aesthetics, philosophy, linguistics, chess, and translation, as well as several works of fiction and an autobiography, George Steiner is probably best known for his literary criticism, which has enthralled and enraged critics in almost equal measure. For some, such as Edward Said in the Nation (2 March 1985), Steiner is a "humanistic relic" and reactionary elitist; for others, such as Nathan A. Scott, he is a great writer and thinker who "has taken up the challenge of new ideas with a cosmopolitan breadth and literary-intellectual range that are unmatched in our era," as Scott writes in the preface to Reading George Steiner (1994). Steiner's most notable work of fiction, The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (1981), adapted for the stage by Christopher Hampton in 1982, was also controversial: its representation of Adolf Hitler has generated heated debate about the ethics and aesthetics of Holocaust fiction, and Steiner himself has refused permission for the publication of any German or Hebrew versions of the work.

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