Lee Siegel (professor and novelist)

Lee Siegel (born 1945, Los Angeles, California) is a professor at the University of Hawaii and a novelist. His 1999 novel, Love in a Dead Language, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a bestseller in India.

He studied comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley and fine arts at Columbia University. He received his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford for a dissertation in the field of Sanskrit. He then was hired by the University of Hawaii as Professor of Religious Studies, where he has taught ever since.

Scholarly Works

From 1978 until the late 1990s, Siegel published scholarly studies of Indian love poetry, comedy, horror, and magic. These books include:

• Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions (1978)
• Fires of Love, Waters of Peace in Indian Culture (1983)
• Laughing Matters. Comic Tradition in India (1987)
• Net of Magic. Wonders and Deceptions in India (1991)
• City of Dreadful Night. A Story about Horror and the Macabre in India (1995)

Novels

In 1999, Siegel published his first novel, Love in a Dead Language. It was named a New York Times notable book of the year.

He has since published several other novels on similar themes:

• Love and Other Games of Chance (2003)

Category: 1945 births Category: Living people Category: Columbia University alumni Category: American academics Category: Jewish American writers