Robert Alter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Alter is a Biblical scholar and professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has written seventeen books, and is noted most recently for his translations of both the original Hebrew Pentateuch in The Five Books of Moses (ISBN 0-393-01955-1), The David Story (1 and 2 Samuel) (ISBN 0-393-32077-4) and Genesis. His works have garnered positive reviews from such publications as The New Yorker and The Washington Post.

Known for his wide range of expertise and appealing use of language, he lectures on topics varying from Biblical episodes to Kafka's modernism. His humor with undergraduates ("Ulysses is a novel about middle age. I'm sorry to tell all of you") mixed with the brusqueness nearly required of scholarship make him an intriguing character around campus.

[edit] External links

• Listing in UCBerkeley's faculty pages
• Biography at Washington University in St. Louis
• The Five Books of Moses review at The New Yorker
• The Five Books of Moses review at The Washington Post