Robert Bernard Alter (born 1935) is an American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He published his translation of the Hebrew Bible in 2018.
Books in order of publication:
Translations of the Hebrew Bible
The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1999, W.W. Norton
The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, 2004, W.W. Norton
The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, 2007, W.W. Norton
The Book of Genesis, translation by Robert Alter, illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009, W.W. Norton (first edition, 1996)
The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary, 2010, W.W. Norton
Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary, 2013, W.W. Norton
Strong As Death Is Love: Song of Songs Ruth Esther Jonah And Daniel: A Translation with Commentary, 2015, W.W. Norton
The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 2018, W.W. Norton
Other works
Rogue’s Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel, 1965, Harvard University Press
Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre, 1975, University of California Press
A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal, in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1979, Basic Books
The Art of Biblical Narrative, 1981, Basic Books
Motives for Fiction, 1984, Harvard University Press
The Art of Biblical Poetry, 1985, Basic Books
The Literary Guide to the Bible Edited by Alter and Frank Kermode, 1987, Harvard University Press
The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language Revolution, 1988, University of Washington Press.
Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age, 1990, W.W. Norton
Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem, 1991, Harvard University Press,
Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Novel, 2005, Yale University Press
Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible, 2010, Princeton University Press
The Art of Bible Translation, 2019, Princeton University Press
Nabokov and the Real World: Between Appreciation and Defense, 2021, Princeton University Press
Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, 2023, Yale University Press
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