WRITER

George Steiner

1929 - 2020

Photo of George Steiner

Icon of person George Steiner

Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, as well as the impact of the Holocaust. A 2001 article in The Guardian described Steiner as a "polyglot and polymath".Among his admirers, Steiner is ranked "among the great minds in today's literary world". English novelist A. S. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of George Steiner has received more than 547,834 page views. His biography is available in 36 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 35 in 2019). George Steiner is the 956th most popular writer (down from 767th in 2019), the 1,090th most popular biography from France (down from 901st in 2019) and the 143rd most popular French Writer.

George Steiner is most famous for his book "Language and Silence" which discusses the relationship between language and silence.

Memorability Metrics

  • 550k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.09

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 36

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.71

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.58

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Tolstoy or Dostoevsky
1959
The death of tragedy
1961
Martin Heidegger
With characteristic lucidity and style, Steiner makes Heidegger's immensely difficult body of work accessible to the general reader. In a new introduction, Steiner addresses language and philosophy and the rise of Nazism. "It would be hard to imagine a better introduction to the work of philosopher Martin Heidegger."-George Kateb, The New Republic
1979
After Babel
Language Arts & Disciplines
When it first appeared in 1975, After Babel created a sensation, quickly establishing itself as both a controversial and seminal study of literary theory. In the original edition, Steiner provided readers with the first systematic investigation since the eighteenth century of the phenomenology and processes of translation both inside and between languages. Taking issue with the principal emphasis of modern linguistics, he finds the root of the "Babel problem" in our deep instinct for privacy and territory, noting that every people has in its language a unique body of shared secrecy. With this provocative thesis he analyzes every aspect of translation from fundamental conditions of interpretation to the most intricate of linguistic constructions.For the long-awaited second edition, Steiner entirely revised the text, added new and expanded notes, and wrote a new preface setting the work in the present context of hermeneutics, poetics, and translation studies. This new edition brings the bibliography up to the present with substantially updated references, including much Russian and Eastern European material. Like the towering figures of Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault, Steiner's work is central to current literary thought. After Babel, Third Edition is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the debates raging in the academy today.
19752 / 5
Language and silence
Philosophy
The evolution and manipulation of language from the celebrated author of After Babel. “A keenly discriminating literary mind at work on what it loves” (The New York Times Book Review). Language and Silence is a book about language—and politics, meaning, silence, and the future of literature. Originally published between 1958 and 1966, the essays that make up this collection ponder whether we have passed out of an era of verbal primacy and into one of post-linguistic forms—or partial silence. Steiner explores the idea of the abandonment of contemporary literary criticism, from the classics to the works of William Shakespeare, Lawrence Durell, Thomas Mann, Leon Trotsky, and more.
1967
In Bluebeard's castle
1971

Page views of George Steiners by language

Over the past year George Steiner has had the most page views in the with 57,236 views, followed by Spanish (25,644), and French (17,607). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Lingua Franca Nova (154.15%), Ido (118.28%), and Latin (75.44%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, George Steiner ranks 956 out of 7,302. Before him are Virginia Satir, Andrew of Crete, Johannes Tauler, Patrick White, Sin Saimdang, and Alfred Kubin. After him are Panait Istrati, Al-Mutanabbi, Ivan Gundulić, Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Sulpicius Severus, and Chiara Lubich.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1929, George Steiner ranks 71. Before him are Bernard Haitink, Jerry Goldsmith, Gordon Moore, Peter L. Berger, Violeta Chamorro, and Ágnes Heller. After him are Albert Azaryan, Imelda Marcos, Mike Hawthorn, Andriyan Nikolayev, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Pierre Brice. Among people deceased in 2020, George Steiner ranks 55. Before him are Kim Ki-duk, Buck Henry, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Joel Schumacher, and Brian Dennehy. After him are Ken Hensley, Mary Higgins Clark, Little Richard, Mamadou Tandja, Abdul Halim Khaddam, and Radomir Antić.

Others Born in 1929

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In France

Among people born in France, George Steiner ranks 1,090 out of 6,770. Before him are Abel Gance (1889), Jean-Paul Gaultier (1952), Adelaide of Aquitaine (950), Marion Cotillard (1975), Jean-Claude Trichet (1942), and Étienne-Jules Marey (1830). After him are Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736), Jean de Dunois (1402), André-Jacques Garnerin (1769), Claude Joseph Vernet (1714), Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737), and Charles Trenet (1913).

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Among WRITERS In France

Among writers born in France, George Steiner ranks 143. Before him are Maurice Druon (1918), Jacques Clément (1567), Jean de La Bruyère (1645), Pierre Larousse (1817), Alexandra David-Néel (1868), and Johannes Tauler (1300). After him are Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737), Victorien Sardou (1831), Heinrich Kramer (1430), Jean de Joinville (1224), Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780), and Nicolas Chamfort (1741).

French born Writers

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