Lewis Hyde
There is no simple way to sum up Lewis Hyde’s career. He is a scholar, poet, teacher, critic, essayist, translator, writer, and public intellectual. However, his diverse activities are united by several themes, those of creativity, imagination and property (intellectual property most particularly). He is intrigued by the culture that we share and the ways we all contribute to it. As Professor Hyde puts it, his “interests center on the public life of the imagination.” He considers works of art and literature to be gifts and believes that both those who create these gifts and those who receive them should view them in this way. Those who wish to consider these works commercial products misunderstand both their nature and their consequences for human existence.
Hyde is now Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College and is a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center. In addition to NEH and NEA fellowships, he has received many notable awards, MacArthur and Guggenheim grants among them. The full roster of his publications is both lengthy and varied. Several of his books are especially well known. They are: The Gift (1983), Trickster Makes this World (1998), and Common as Air: Revolution, Art and Ownership (2010). All his works are greatly admired by professional writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hyde
http://www.lewishyde.com/