The Biography of the Bible: About the Author

The Biography of the Bible, by Ernest Sutherland Bates, [1937], at sacred-texts.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES comes from a long line of New England deacons and members of the clergy. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, his mother's father a Methodist. Their descendant, however, has devoted himself to the study of philosophy and literature, having taken his Ph.D. from Columbia. Dr. Bates has served as professor of both English literature and philosophy in the Universities of Arizona and of Oregon. He was literary editor of the Dictionary of American Biography. He has written half a dozen books, one of them a narrative prose poem entitled The Friend of Jesus.

Finally, he is the editor of The Bible, Designed to Be Read as Living Literature.

(From Back Cover)

ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES

ERNEST SUTHERLAND BATES comes from a long line of New England deacons and members of the clergy. His father was an Episcopal clergyman; his mother's father was a Methodist. Their descendant, however, has devoted himself to the study of philosophy and literature, having taken his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1908. He then served as Professor of English literature in the University of Arizona until 1915 when he moved to the University of Oregon to become, first, Professor of English and then Professor of Philosophy.

In 1926 Dr. Bates joined the staff of the Dictionary of American Biography as its literary editor and two years later his narrative poem The Friend of Jesus made its appearance both in the United States and England, bearing in England its original title The Gospel According to Judas. Other books by Dr. Bates include This Land of Liberty and The Story of Congress. He was joint author of a life of Mary Baker Eddy and of Hearst, Lord of San Simeon. In 1930 he joined the reviewing staff of the Saturday Review of Literature and in 1933 became one of the editors of the Modern Monthly. In 1936 he edited The Bible: Designed to be Read as Living Literature.

By ancestry, training, and natural inclination Dr. Bates is ideally equipped to write about the Bible. When he entered college he planned to become a clergyman but preferred to devote himself to the study of philosophy which increased, rather than diminished, his life-long interest in the Bible. He thus brings to his interpretation of the Bible the learning and wisdom of a varied life.