Henry Clarke Warren

Background

Henry Clarke Warren was born in Cambridge, Massachussets His ancestors, who were of English stock, came to New England between 1630 and 1640; his father was Samuel Dennis Warren, and his mother, Susan Cornelia Clarke.

Education

Prepared for college by private instruction, he took his bachelor's degree at Harvard in 1879, and continued his studies at the Johns Hopkins University (1879 - 84). His work in college, which centered around Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and philosophy, was distinguished by his keen interest in the history of philosophy. The natural trend of his mind was toward speculative questions, but he also took an active interest in objective scientific matters. At Johns Hopkins he spent much time in the chemical laboratory, and through all his later years read widely in the natural sciences. He began the study of Sanskrit at Harvard under Prof. James B. Greenough, went to Johns Hopkins in order to study with Prof. Charles R. Lanman, and continued with Prof. Maurice Bloomfield after Lanman went to Harvard in 1880.

Career

In the summer of 1884 he went to England for a short visit to his brother at Oxford. Contact with the Pali scholar, Prof. Rhys Davids, founder of the Pali Text Society, stimulated his interest in Buddhism and led him to devote all his later scholarly effort to Pali and the sacred books of southern Buddhism. After his father's death in 1888 he tried the climate of southern California, but soon returned to Boston; his close friendship with Lanman led him to establish himself in Cambridge in 1891. Having inherited substantial means from his father, who was the founder of the Warren Paper Company, he made possible the publication of the Harvard Oriental Series, of which thirty-one volumes were issued between 1891 and 1932. His most important work, Buddhism in Translations (Harvard Oriental Series, vol. III, 1896) has been reissued many times. Nearly half of it was included by President Eliot in the Harvard Classics. The great skill shown in the selection of the passages and in the order of their presentation, and the vigorous English of the translation, give the book a permanent value. Warren did not live to complete his magnum opus, a four-volume edition and translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga or "Way of Purity, " a systematic exposition of the doctrine of Pali Buddhism dating from about 400 A. D. The text was nearly ready for publication at his death, and about one third of the translation had been made. After long delay this work is now in process of being completed and edited for the Harvard Oriental Series.

Achievements

• Warren along with Charles Rockwell Lanman founded the Harvard Oriental Series in 1891. He was the first American scholar to attain distinction in the study of Pali.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Buddhist Reader: Selections from the Sacred Books

    ( This much-cited scholarly anthology of key Theravada Bu...)

  • Budhism in Transalations

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Buddhism in Translation

    (Here is a work that aims at presenting 'different ideas a...)

  • Essential Buddhist Discourses

    (This book contains the most important passages selected f...)

  • Buddhism : In Translations

    (Buddhism : In Translations Mass Market Paperback Jan 01, ...)

  • Buddhism in Translations: Passages Selected from the Buddhist Sacred Books and Translated from the O

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Life of Buddha

    (A translation from Pali language Dimensions: 22x 14.5x 1...)

  • Buddhism in Translations: Passages Selected from the Buddhist Sacred Books and Translated From the Original Pali into Enghlish

Personality

In his early infancy a fall from a chaise caused a spinal lesion, as the result of which he grew humpbacked, "and, " as he expressed it, "ever since I have been excessively delicate and always ailing" (Harvard Class Reports). Though shut off from most of the activities and pleasures of normal children, youths, and men, he was enabled by his intellectual ability and force of character to rise above physical disabilities and to make important contributions to Oriental scholarship. Most of his work was done while he stood at a high desk with two crutches under his arms to take the weight off his spine; and toward the end of his life he worked while kneeling at a chair, resting the weight of his trunk on his elbows. He made light of his physical suffering, buoyed up always by a sense of humor which never failed him. He was most kind-hearted, generous, and modest, and given to unostentatious deeds of charity.

Connections

Father:

Susan Cornelia Clarke

Mother:

Samuel Denis Warren