Tom Lowenstein

Thomas Godfrey Lowenstein (15 August 1941 – 21 March 2025) was an English poet, ethnographer, teacher, cultural historian and translator. Beginning his working life as a school teacher, he visited Alaska in 1973 and went on to become particularly noted for his work on Inupiaq (north Alaskan Eskimo) ethnography, conducting research in Point Hope, Alaska, between 1973 and 1988. His writing also encompasses several collections of poetry, as well as books related to Buddhism. From 1986, Lowenstein lived and continued teaching in London.

Life and career Thomas Godfrey Lowenstein was born on 15 August 1941 near London, England. He went to Leighton Park School, then studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he earned an M.A. degree in 1965 (and was briefly editor of the university magazine Granta), and the University of Leicester School of Education (Cert. Ed., 1966).

He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979 in the field of Folklore and Popular Culture. Other awards for Lowenstein's research came from Northwestern University, the Nuffield Foundation, the Society of Authors, the British Academy, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Leverhulme Trust, the Arctic Institute of North America, The American Philosophical Society, Alaska Humanities Forum, and North Slope Borough, Alaska. and The Sybil of Cumae (2001), and the libretto for Rachel Stott's oratorio Companion of Angels on the lives of William Blake and Catherine Blake.

His poetry collections include The Death of Mrs Owl (1975), Filibustering in Samsara (1987), Ancient Land: Sacred Whale (1993), Ancestors and Species: New & Selected Ethnographic Poetry (2005) and Conversation with Murasaki (2009). He was also a regular contributor to publications including London Review of Books and The Fortnightly Review.

Lowenstein died on 21 March 2025, at the age of 83.

Selected bibliography Poetry

Our After-fate, Softy Loudly Books, 1971 Eskimo Poems from Canada and Greenland (translation), London: Allison & Busby, 1973; University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973 The Death of Mrs Owl, London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1975. Booster – A Game of Divination, London: Many Press, 1975 La Tempesta’s X-ray, Many Press, 1988 Filibustering in Samsara, Many Press, 1987 Ancient Land: Sacred Whale, Bloomsbury, Farrar Straus and Giroux, Harvill Press. Ancestors and Species, Shearsman Books, 2005 Conversation with Murasaki, Shearsman Books, 2009 From Culbone Wood – in Xanadu: Notebooks and Fanasias, Shearsman Books, 2013 The Bridge at Uji, Shearsman Books, 2022.

Works on North-west Alaska

Stories from Point Hope, Alaska State Museum, Juneau, 1973 Sea Ice Subsistence at Point Hope, Alaska, North Slope Borough, 1980 The Shaman Aningatchaq, translation & commentary, Many Press, London, 1982 The Things That Were Said of Them: Oral Histories from Point Hope, University of California Press / Douglas & McIntyre, 1990 Ancient Land: Sacred Whale, prose and poetry, Bloomsbury, Harvill Press, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1993 and 2001. Ultimate Americans: Point Hope, Alaska 1826–1909, University of Alaska Press, 2009

Buddhist-related works The Vision of the Buddha: Buddhism — The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment, Duncan Baird Publishers /Macmillan, 1996, Treasures of the Buddha, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2006 Classic Haiku, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2007