John PayneJohn Payne was born in Bloomsbury, London, in 1842. An English poet, translator, and solicitor, he became associated with literary figures including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and developed a particular interest in medieval European and Middle Eastern lierature. He was also closely involved with the Villon Society, a private publishing organization devoted to issuing finely produced editions and translations for subscribers.Payne is best remembered for his nine-volume translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, published privately between 1882 and 1884. Based principally on the Arabic text of the Calcutta II edition, his translation was among the earliest complete and unexpurgated English renderings of the collection. Payne sought to preserve the structure, imagery, poetry, and narrative character of the Arabic original while presenting the stories in an elevated literary style. Only five hundred copies of the original edition were printed, making it an important and highly collectible landmark in the English publication history of the Arabian Nights.In addition to the Arabian Nights, Payne translated works by Giovanni Boccaccio, François Villon, Omar Khayyam, and the Persian poet Hafez. His translations helped introduce major works of European and Middle Eastern literature to English readers, while his own poetry reflected his interest in romance, legend, and traditional literary forms. Payne died in London in 1916, leaving behind a body of work that established him as one of the notable English literary translators of the late nineteenth century. Read More Read Less