Tom Lowenstein


Thomas Godfrey Lowenstein 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 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 the University of Leicester School of Education.
After university, Lowenstein taught in secondary schools in London, then for three years taught literature and creative writing in the United States at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. In 1973, he worked for the Alaska State Museum, and went on to live on and off in the Alaskan village of Point Hope, recording and translating the local history and legends.
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.
He subsequently followed up an interest in Buddhist literature by studying Sanskrit and Pali at Cambridge University, SOAS University of London and the University of Washington.
Lowenstein also wrote texts for music collaborations, including with the composer Ed Hughes Sun, Moon and Women Shouting and The Sybil of Cumae, 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, Filibustering in Samsara, Ancient Land: Sacred Whale, Ancestors and Species: New & Selected Ethnographic Poetry and Conversation with Murasaki. 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, 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