George steiner essays

The conversations took place both in Steiner's spacious modern office at Churchill College and in the living room of his home in Cambridge. On the bookshelves stand dozens of chess sets, reflecting one of his deepest passions, along with first editions of Heidegger and Kant, Coleridge and Byron.

Several works of literary fiction by Steiner include four short story collections, Anno Domini: Three Stories (1964), Proofs and Three Parables (1992), The Deeps of the Sea (1996), and A cinq heures de l'après-midi (2008); and his controversial novella, The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (1981).

He is married to author and historian Zara Shakow Steiner; they have a son, David Steiner (who served as New York State's Commissioner of Education from 2009 to 2011) and a daughter, Deborah Steiner (Professor of Classics at Columbia University ).

After his doctoral thesis at Oxford, a draft of The Death of Tragedy (later published by Faber and Faber ), was rejected, Steiner took time off from his studies to teach English at Williams College and to work as leader writer for the London -based weekly publication The Economist between 1952 and 1956.