Poet, translator, philhellene Edmund Keeley dies at age 94

Also a preeminent essayist and poet, Keeley was responsible for many people's first encounter with the works of major Greek poets George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, Constantine Cavafy, Yiannis Ritsos and Angelos Sikelianos through his translations into English, faithful to the spirit of the originals. He also held multiple prizes for his work, both fiction and translation.

The son of a diplomat, born to American parents in Damascus in 1928, Keeley spent his childhood and youth in Syria, Canada, and in Greece during the interwar period when his father was the American consul in Thessaloniki, before returning to the US.

An alumnus of both Princeton and Oxford Universities, Keeley taught English and creative writing at Princeton, where he also created the Modern Greek Studies Association in 1968. He also served on the editorial boards of journals Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, Translation Review, and The Journal of Modern Greek Studies.

In a statement on Keeley's passing, Greek Culture & Sports Minister Lina Mendoni said that "For Keeley, Greece was more than just a country he got to know well and lived in: It was his second home. We say goodbye to him as a Greek, with tremendous respect to his important work and to his great contribution to the spread of Greek culture."