In the Oct. 4-5, 2003 issue of the International Herald Tribune newspaper, the photo I took of translator Edward G. Seidensticker (above) appeared in the Books & Culture column written by my friend Ralph Cassell. It was the first time a photo of mine (properly credited) appeared in this newspaper.

The article titled, “Translator recalls what he got (and missed) over half a century,” was about a talk Seidensticker gave in Tokyo to the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (SWET) on Sept. 27.

In the translation world, Seidensticker is a legendary figure best-known for translating masterpiece Japanese novels such as Yasunari Kawabata’s Nobel Prize-winning “Snow Country” (Yukiguni), Murasaki Shikibu’s “Tale of Genji, and Jun’inchiro Tanizaki’s “The Makioka Sisters” (Sasameyuki).

Seidensticker accompanied Kawabata to Stockholm in 1968 for the Nobel Prize awards ceremony. Without Seidensticker’s English translation, Kawabata would not have won the prize.