Sappho's Journal

by Paul Alexander Bartlett

Colophon 153

FOREWORD

Willis Barnstone

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature

Indiana University

P

aul Alexander Bartlett’s journal of Sappho is a masterful work. I had recently completed a translation of the extant lines of Sappho and am familiar with his problems. He was faced with the almost impossible task of reconstructing the personality of Sappho and her background in ancient Lesbos. To my happy surprise he did so, in a work which is at once poetic, dramatic and powerful. In Sappho’s Journal he does more than create a vague illusion of the past. He conveys the character of real people, their interior life and outer world. A mature artist, he writes with ease and taste.

PREFACE

Steven James Bartlett

Senior Research Professor of Philosophy, Oregon State University