Hailed in the New York Times Book Review as "the century's leading expert on Japanese literature, as well as its most indefatigable translator," Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author, editor, or translator of over thirty books of criticism and works of literature, including No and Bunraku, Twenty Plays of the No Theater, Major Plays of Chikamatsu, The Pleasures of Japanese Literature, Three Plays by Kobo Abe, Modern Japanese Diaries, Essays in Idleness, andTravelers of a Hundred Ages (all published by Columbia).