Monkey [Journey to the West] (The Folio Society)

London: The Folio Society, 1968. First Thus. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8x5x1. Grant, Duncan. First thus (Ford-Smith, Folio 76 #250). Includes publisher's slipcase. Edges of spine, slipcase edges, and rear slipcase panel a bit foxed, spine slightly faded. 1968 Hard Cover. 311 pp. Translated into English by Arthur Waley, with illustrations by Duncan Grant. Wu Cheng'en was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty. He was born in Huaian, Jiangsu province. He studied in Nanjing Taixue (ancient Nanjing University) for more than 10 years. His most famous novel is Xi-you-ji, or 'Journey to the West'. The novel has been enjoyed by many generations (truncated) of Chinese and is the most popular Chinese classic folk novel. The most famous English translation of the novel is by Arthur Waley and entitled Monkey." "Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss. A Jew, he changed his surname to his paternal grandmother's maiden name, Waley, in 1914. Educated at Rugby School, he entered King's College, Cambridge in 1907, where he studied Classics, and was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1910. Waley was appointed Assistant Keeper of Oriental Prints and Manuscripts at the British Museum in 1913. During this time he taught himself Chinese and Japanese, partly to help catalogue the paintings in the Museum's collection. He quit in 1929 to devote himself fully to his literary and cultural interests, though he continued to lecture in the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. In 1918, he met Beryl de Zoete, a dance critic and writer; they lived together until her death in 1962. In 1966, Arthur Waley married Alison Robinson, whom he had first met in 1929. They lived in Highgate in London, and she became a familiar figure in later years, living beyond the age of 100. Waley lived in Bloomsbury and had a number of friends among the Bloomsbury Group, many of whom he had met as an undergraduate. He was one of the earliest to recognize Ronald Firbank as an accomplished author, and together with Osbert Sitwell provided an introduction to Firbank's first collected edition. Noted American poet Ezra Pound was instrumental in getting Waley's first translations into print in The Little Review. His view of Waley's early work was mixed, however. As he wrote to Margaret Anderson, the Review's editor, in a letter of July 2, 1917: "Have at last got hold of Waley's translations from Po chu I. Some of the poems are magnificent. Nearly all the translations marred by his bungling English and defective rhythm... I shall try to buy the best ones, and to get him to remove some of the botched places. (He is stubborn as a jackass, or a scholar.)" Yet Waley, in his Introduction in his translation of The Way and its Power, explains that he was careful to put meaning above style in translations where meaning would be reasonably considered of more importance to the modern Western reader. Waley was elected an honorary fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1945, received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) honor in 1952, the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 1953, and the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1956. He died in London and is buried in the renowned Highgate Cemetery. (Inventory #: 2347300)