John D. Harris

About the Author

I did not begin writing seriously until I was 60, at about the same time that I returned for a second degree and a career as a teacher of English literature. Although I am retired now from the classroom, I remain a teacher in my heart. My first degree was Classical Greek because I wanted to read the Odyssey in its original language. This started a fascination with ancient literature that abides and is reflected in my writing.

I still have the same wife and all my children yet live. In all of that I am fortunate. I live on the Mississippi River in the city of Wabasha where the waters cure ague, according to Mark Twain.

My published works currently include these translations and annotated editions:

The Epic of Gilgamesh—an annotated prose rendition pf the ancient epic, based upon original Akkadian, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Hittite texts with appendices (3rd century BCE)

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus—the Elizabethan Play by Christopher Marlowe. Annotated with Supplemental Text. (16th century CE)

The Lore of Gawain—a complete collection of the medieval tales of the Arthurian Knight Gawain (12th century CE)

Tales of True Love—love stories of Marie De France retold boldly and truly (11th century CE)

Psyche & Eros—a refreshed retold version of the classic mythopoeic tale by Lucius Apuleius (2nd century CE)

"The Golden Ass" (or Metamorphoses)—a refreshed retold version of the entire ancient novel by Lucius Apuleius (2nd century CE)

In addition I have these works of fiction and poetry:

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (Vol. I & Vol. II) —a collection of short stories and novellas which are predicated upon the lives of certain ancient Greek philosophers, upon which original text this title is based

Mrs. Wilson’s Tales—17 tales of the Kathlamet, a native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest, and 17 versions of the same tales, cast in the epoch of Wisconsin pioneers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

fishes – collected poetry

Faustbook—a narrative poem in the manner of five acts with excursus in five acts retelling the legend of Faust with a contemporary meaning

Finally these works of non-fiction are offered:

Conscience in Extremis: An Essay on Morality in History—a book-length essay in consideration of the moral conflicts of the American Sixties with particular emphasis upon the lives of Norman Morrison and Robert S. McNamara, one a martyr and the other an architect of the Vietnam War. The wider question of the import of this epoch to our present and future times is drawn by its analysis and conclusion. This is Volume I of a series of American Individuals in American History.

The Authentic and Genuine Autobiography of David Crockett: American Identity Emerges. It includes the original narrative of Crockett as he wrote it, and extensive supplementary material and readings to explore how he represents the emergent American Identity. This is the second in a series of of American Individuals in American History.

Students Are Not Sausages--three essays on American Public Schools: -a Critique, a Pedagogy, a Manifesto

Diary of a Grand Tour—a summing up my life and an anecdotal account my "grand tour" of Great Britain and Europe after by retirement from teaching

I am currently working on also Mirror to Mirror: The Individual and the Self and Volume III of the Series of American Individuals in American History— Gospels of Wilderness and Wealth: Lives and Legacies of John Muir and Andrew Carnegie.