On Heroes, Hero Worship, And The Heroic In History

Thomas Cleary

Thomas Cleary (born 1949) is a prolific author and translator of more than 80 books related to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, and of The Art of War, a treatise on management, military strategy, and statecraft.He has translated books from Pali, Sanskrit, Arabic, Japanese, Classical Chinese, and Old Irish into English. Cleary lives in Oakland, California, a city on the West Coast of the United States. Cleary became interested in Buddhism when he was a teenager; his researches into Buddhist thought began with a desire to learn during this time of his life.[1] When he began translating, he chose either untranslated works or—as in the case of Sun Tzu's The Art of War—books whose extant translations were "too limited". Cleary earned a Ph.D in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, and a JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Since completing his doctoral studies, Cleary has had little involvement with the academic world. "There is too much oppression in a university setting", he says. "I want to stay independent and reach those who want to learn directly through my books