Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell

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In Brand New, Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn looks at six entrepreneurs and the extraordinary brands they built. The entrepreneurs include Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Estee Lauder, and Michael Dell. What interests Koehn is not so much the success that these brands enjoyed as much as the trust these household names were able to inspire in consumers. Koehn makes her study especially relevant to today's marketers in that each of the entrepreneurs she looks at developed their brand during a period of tumultuous change. For example, Wedgewood's tableware became popular during the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the middle class; Schultz's coffee empire blossomed in the 1990s and the present-day information revolution. Part business history, part marketing manual, Brand New is a valuable study of brand development that belongs on every thoughtful marketer's bookshelf. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

Until Josiah Wedgwood, Britons ate from wood and pewter plates. Until Henry Heinz, women toiled over pickled foods. Until Michael Dell, few people owned a personal computer, let alone dreamed of buying one "built to order." According to business historian Nancy F. Koehn, these pathbreaking entrepreneurs shared a powerful gift: the ability to discern how economic and social change would affect consumer needs and wants.

In Brand New, Koehn introduces us to six extraordinary leaders of brand creation who lived and worked during periods of widespread change: Josiah Wedgwood in the Industrial Revolution; Henry Heinz and Marshall Field in the Transportation and Communication Revolution; and Estée Lauder, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell in the Information Revolution. Through compelling and engaging profiles of these entrepreneurial visionaries, she reveals a provocative relationship between economic turbulence, household priorities, and company strategy that holds important lessons for today's brand builders.

According to Koehn, these forward-thinking individuals understood the profound effects that socioeconomic change has on what customers want, have, and can afford as much as on what companies make-and were masters at exploiting the enormous business opportunities these demand-side shifts created. Indeed, the brands and companies created by these individuals have become such a part of everyday life that we've made them part of common speech: we pass the Heinz; eat off Wedgwood; order a Starbucks.

Koehn draws from their diaries, correspondence, and official business records to demonstrate that these entrepreneurs were more than savvy marketers; they were institution builders. She shows how each used brand not as a logo, but as a vital strategic tool for creating best-of-class companies-and for building powerful organizational capabilities that supported their connections with customers and helped make new markets for their offerings.

Distilling critical lessons for businesses operating in both the traditional and on-line worlds, Brand New will convince every entrepreneur of the remarkable power of brands to transform start-ups, gain competitive advantage, and change lives.

Customer Reviews:

Learning from Branding History.......2005-04-02

It's probably a result of less-than-fully applying myself during my college years, but I tend to pre-judge any book by an academic as boring. I'm glad that didn't stop me from reading Nancy Koehn's book, "Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers Trust From Wedgwood to Dell."

Koehn is a professor at no less than the Harvard Business School. She is also an excellent writer, and she understands that the essence of getting good information across is stories. Brand New is a book of stories about branding. It is anything but boring.

Koehn divides the book into two giant sections, The Past and The Present.

In The Past, she includes the stories of Josiah Wedgwood, H. J. Heinz and Marshall Field. All the stories are told in detail enriched by facts, insights, and quotes. All of them contain lessons for today's businessperson. Most of the lessons are about branding, but there's a lot more.

Read this book and you will find out all about how Josiah Wedgwood changed the common practice by impressing his own name in the unfired clay of his works. That's impressive. But you will also learn how his partnership with Thomas Bentley took Wedgwood's strengths and his insight about branding and turned them into a highly profitable business.

You'll learn about why H. J. Heinz packed his product in glass jars and how he kept control of his distribution. You'll hear about the 1902 giant opening at Marshall Field's and you'll learn about Field's varying relationships with his partners.

In the section on The Present, you will get the story of Estee Lauder and how she changed not only her name and image but also the face of cosmetic marketing through magnetism and incredible persistence. You'll hear how Howard Schultz wound up at Starbucks Coffee and why it bears his imprint, and you'll hear about Michael Dell without overmuch mention of the legendary dorm room.

The stories themselves make delightful reading, but the learning is probably even more important than the enjoyment. These stories illustrate how specific, successful entrepreneurs took a look around at things that were happening in society and developed products and brands and marketing and distribution systems to take advantage of them. These insightful and inspiring stories will help you understand your own business and find ways to make it more profitable.

a very useful and interesting business history book.......2003-04-06

Did you know that in 1859 Americans consumed about eight pounds of coffee per year, per capita? Or that by 1939 it was fourteen pounds? If this is your cup of tea, then I think you will like this book. This is not a criticism, I liked the book because it looks at the growth in demand which was supplied by the entrepreneurs who formed the brands described in the book. Indeed this demand-side view is part of the book that made the biggest impact on me.
Some of this is obvious, but somewhat in the backround of our knowledge - "between 1860 and 1920 the population of the US grew from 31.5 to 107 million" - and some of this is well extracted in this book - e.g. "in 1844 (when Henry J. Heinz was born)less than 10% of American's lived in towns of greater than 2,500 population, 75 years later (when he died) 50% were urban dwellers and 20% lived in cities of greater than 250,000 people". Koehn builds up this demand side very well in each of the six cases she uses to illustrate who entrepreneurs build up branded business - Wedgwood , Heinz, Marshall-Fields, Estee Lauder, Starbucks and Dell.
Koehn, a Harvard business historian, is also quite good at showing how developing technology is put to use to serve this demand (or does it create it?) - "In 1830 it took three weeks to get calico from New York to Chicago, in 1860 it took three days, by 1880 ... less than 24 hours"
Again we all knew the importance of the railroad, but here its phrased in a way that makes sense of the dynamic growth and gentrification of the Mid West. She illustrates well the need that urbanisation created for prepared food that could be trusted and describes very well the increasing sophistication of industrial level food preparation - " by the 1860;s the introduction of calcium chloride to boiling water cut sterilization times from five hours to 25 minutes". She can even make innovations in canning technology sound exciting.

So much for the good stuff, I did find the tone of the descriptions of each entrepreneurs a bit fawning. Each had the feel of a business case, with the usual tone of awe and deference to the wit and wisdom of the main characters. With the exception of the Starbucks case - where Howard Shultz openly tells of his mistakes and wrong turnings - each case seems to highlight the wisdom of the main character, whereas it seems to me its their determination that marks them out, more than anything else. Henry Heinz went bankrupt three times in food products, before he became successful, Michael Dell was still seen as a cloner into the late 1980's.
Koehn makes no judgements about the more unpleasant side of this determination - Estee Lauder staged a meeting with the Duke of Windsor, which she had photographed and publicised, in order to make it appear she had high-society connections, Josiah Wedgwood supplied free gifts to royalty in the certain knowledge that the aspirations of the middle classes to emulate royalty would drive demand for this his products.
There are good insights into how these individuals drove modern marketing techniques - Wedgwood emphasized showrooms, Estee Lauder the free gift. And all had tremendous energy for customer service and production detail. However in each of the early cases we are told that 20th Century techniques were unknown to the industry " Brand marketing was virtually unheard of in the 18th Century" [ Wedgwood]; " Between 1869 and 1899, real per capita income increased at an annual compound rate of 2.1%. Henry Heinz had no access to these statistics. These numbers are based on economic concepts developed in the 20th Century". This kind of clumsiness crops up in each case, ok we get the point that these pioneers instinctively did something which is now solidified into great theory, but surely this point could be illustrated with more deftness.

This apart, a very useful and interesting book, a book for anyone interested in the general history of business. Some excellent details, too much fawning and praise too little criticism of the central characters who built the brands. A fascinating story.
If you liked this book, check out books by Arthur Chandler and John Drewer.

One final fact, Charles Darwin had the time and money to devote to his famous voyage on the Beagle - which laid the basis for the theory of Evolution - because his wife's grandfather was Joshua Wedgwood. Was this financial evolution at work?

Overview of successful entrepreneurial approaches to brands.......2003-02-13

Koehn has produced a weighty and informative look at the way successful entrepreneurs have used brands to achieve a number of goals. These goals include long-term differentiation from competitors, internal quality control, profit margin protection, and facilitation of additional product introduciton.

To make her case, she chose three cases from the past (Wedgwood, Heinz, and Marshall Field) and three cases from the present (Estee Lauder, Starbucks, and Dell Computers). Finally, she concludes the book with a chapter which addresses the issue of historical forces and entrepreneurial agency.

I particularly found the cases from the past persuasive in their argumentation for a long-term differentiating factor in brand. The newer cases are obviously harder to make in that (particularly with Starbucks and Dell) how long-term the success will be remains to be seen. One of the best features of the book is the depth with which she treats each case-- she provides enough information to build her thesis (and often entertain with the anecdotes) but not so much that the book becomes bogged down. The excellent footnotes provide whatever's necessary to someone looking for further information.

One minor quarrel is that I would have liked to see the further reading pulled out into a better organized bibliography. There were obviously quite a few good sources scattered amongst the footnotes and if you were interested in a particular subject matter it required some patience to pull all of the citations out.

Brands Old: Inspiration for Brands Yet to Be.......2002-11-26

As she completed her research and then began to write this book, Nancy Koehn made several important decisions. First, she placed her primary objective in clear focus: to explain "how entrepreneurs earned customers' trust." Next, she limited her attention to only six. Finally, she then examined them within an historical context from the late-18th century until the present time. As Koehn observes, "Before 1750,...most Britons ate off wood or pewter plates. Then came Josiah Wedgwood. In antebellum America, the majority of women made their own pickles. Then came Henry Heinz. Until the Civil War, urban retailing was a specialized activity with a wide variety of small shops offering particular kinds of goods. Then came department store entrepreneurs such as Marshall Field." It is important to stress that Koehn is a biographer and cultural historian only to the extent that the material she provides helps to advance the narrative of her core themes: how six individual entrepreneurs dealt with the "imperatives" to quality goods at reasonable prices, communicate the virtues of her or his products to potential buyers in effective ways and thereby maintain and grow a viable customer base, and, how to develop organizational capabilities to learn about their respective customers and then earn their trust.

Before 1945, Koehn observes, "few American women wore premium lipstick or facial creams, and those who did [when they could] bought them in beauty shops along with elaborate treatments administered by trained cosmeticians. Then came Estee Lauder. Prior to the late 1970s, Americans bought ground coffee mostly in one-pound cans sold in supermarkets and supplied by large food processors. Then came [Howard Schultz and] Starbucks. Before 1980, most businesses used only typewriters and copy machines for paperwork. Large companies relied on mainframe and midsize computers to handle extensive calculations and data processing. Only a small number of households owned a personal computer or printer. Few if any of these users expected to be able to specify a particular computer's configuration. Then came Apple, IBM, Compaq, and Michael Dell." It is also important to stress that each of the six entrepreneurs whom Koehn discusses fully understood what rapid social and economic change in their respective era meant for consumers' needs and desires. Moreover, as she carefully explains, all six used their knowledge of both the supply and demand sides of the prevailing economy to create high-quality goods,, meaningful brands, and other connections with customers..." and they built elite organizations that worked to [in italics] satisfy and then [in italics] anticipate buyers' changing preferences."

In Chapter 1, Koehn provides a brilliant overview on "Entrepreneurs and Consumers," then devotes an entire chapter to each of the six entrepreneurs. In her final chapter, she shifts her attention to "Historical Forces and Entrepreneurial Agency," followed by 104 pages of notes. In that final chapter, Koehn points out that the six entrepreneurs "lived and worked in different contexts. Yet they all shared a powerful gift: the ability to discern how economic and social change affected consumer needs and wants. They also understood that these demand-side shifts presented critical business opportunities -- opportunities that each exploited by creating new, best-of-class goods and strong brands." She goes on to suggest that they were "institution builders who were not interested in riding the wave of a short-lived trend or forcing their young brands on buyers. They wanted to [in italics] earn consumers' trust and keep it."

It remains to seen which entrepreneurs emerge during the next few years but it seems certain that they will also encounter "economic and social change affected consumer needs and wants" and in a global marketplace yet to be developed. There is much that they -- and we -- can learn from Josiah Wedgwood, H.J. Heinz, Marshall Field, Estee Lauder, Howard Schultz, and Michael Dell. Thanks to Nancy Koehn, those "lessons" are provided in a single volume, one which will continue to be of interest and value for decades to come.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read Wolf's The Entertainment Economy, Schmitt's Experiential Marketing, Gobe's Emotional Branding, Gilmore and Pine's The Experience Economy, and Brands: The New Wealth Creators co-edited by Hart and Murphy.

everything you wanted to know about branding . . . and more.......2001-11-25

professor koehn presents the subject of branding in a fascinating historical perspective; a interesting, insightful and sometimes surprising read. a very useful book for anyone who is managing a brand, trying to understand the value of brands, or wants to understand how branding fits into the lore of business.

Book Description

With its familiar white classical figures against a pale-blue background, Wedgwood has been one of the most recognizable brand names in the world for more than two hundred years—the epitome of quality and luxury—and the Enlightenment's most remarkable success story.

Born into a family of struggling potters, Josiah Wedgwood amassed a fortune that, at his death in 1795, was valued at the equivalent of $3.4 billion in today's dollars and helmed an empire that stretched from England to Russia to the United States. As a member of the famous Lunar Society, whose members included James Watt, Joseph Priestley, and Erasmus Darwin, he combined rationality with bold experimentation, revolutionizing the business model of his time with a series of innovations that have continued to this day:
• Organizing skilled labor in one of the world's earliest factories
• Encouraging employee loyalty by offering long-term contracts that included health insurance and pension plans
• Changing the very notion of shopping by utilizing showrooms and traveling salesmen

The story of how phenomenal wealth affected the lives of a family and of the turbulent political climate that threatened their very livelihood, this vivid and compelling portrait of a pioneer of commercial culture is sure to be a hit with loyal collectors and the business market alike.

Customer Reviews:

An Innovative Commercial Master.......2004-12-14

There was a time when consumers had no brand names to go by, and now we have plenty of them. What was the first one? A good case could be made for the name Wedgwood, the fine pottery that has come for over two hundred years from the factory founded by Josiah Wedgwood in the pottery towns of Staffordshire, England. Not only has the name continued, but it has been from the beginning synonymous with fine taste. Its finest wares were bought for their elegance by aristocrats, and then there were other pottery creations that lesser mortals could buy as their betters set the trends for taste. Josiah Wedgwood knew all about the importance of a name, and about the need to catch the public taste and predict the next fashion. In _Wedgwood: The First Tycoon_ (Viking), Brian Dolan has given us a compelling account of a commercial success story that has many resonances with modern business practices on the cutting edge of technology, while taking into account a wider view of the social aspects of commerce in the eighteenth century.

It is in many ways a rags to riches tale. Wedgwood's family had been Staffordshire potters for generations, but the potting works had been allowed to languish by Wedgwood's grandfather and father, who had no idea what innovation was. He was determined to do things differently, and he had absorbed the idea that progress and profits could be made scientifically. He was a Dissenter, a non-Anglican who favored rational inquiry rather than biblical interpretation as be the best manner of understanding the way the world works. He loved experimenting all his life. "Labor I will not call it," he said of his time-consuming and exacting experiments. He instead called it "entertainment," and he entertained himself into some of the most technically advanced potting techniques of the time. His innovations allowed calculated business gambles, which generally paid off. He was astute in predicting or making tastes; when Pompeian styles became vogue, Wedgwood was at the fore with the invention of "colored jasper", his medium for reproducing ancient pots.

Wedgwood was dedicated to self improvement and to improvement of his society, and knew that business was a means to accomplish both. In pursuit of better business, he caused better roads and then a canal to be built as part of his social schemes. He provided training, housing, education, health care, and even retirement plans for those who worked for him. He was a tough boss, fuming against "dilatory, drunken, Idle, worthless workmen." When he strolled through the workshop, he might spy an offending vessel that failed to meet with his standards. He would smash it with his stick, exclaiming, "This will not do for Josiah Wedgwood." He was troubled by others stealing his ideas; there are tales here of commercial chicanery and theft that are the same as newspapers might report today. He valued fair competition; of another manufacturer, Matthew Boulton, he wrote, "He will not be a mere sniveling Copyist like the antagonists I have hitherto had," but rather a spur to better wares. Wedgwood had enormous confidence; having become Potter to Her Majesty, he wrote that he wanted to become "Vase maker General to the Universe." He largely succeeded, harnessing the technological, social, and commercial forces of his time. Dolan's admiring but full portrait shows that many of Wedgwood's values of style, research, innovation, and marketing were new with him but have continued to our own age.

A Different Potter.......2004-10-19

My mother and some of my siblings worked in a pottery factory, and in my youth I went there many times and caught some glimpses of how things were done. This factory employed hundreds of workers. doing some awful, monotonous, carpal tunnel-generating routines. They made only the most basic stuff, quickly and cheaply. Nothing produced was of much beauty, but it was the town's most important employer, and many workers gave their lives over to it.

Wedgewood pottery has always intrigued me--how the devil do they produce such incredibly beautiful stuff, so different from what I saw there? How are the finer pieces made with such reproducibility and perfection? There is a fine story here and Dolan has told it well.

When Josiah Wedgewood was born in 1730, the youngest of twelve children, into the home of a potter in the Britain's Midlands. His humble beginnings, rising through the ranks, finally, at the age of 29, led him to establish his own small pottery business. Wedgewood was determined to achieve greater success and made a key decision--that he would continuously improve the processes used and invent new and wonderful things. He established a routine of constant experimentation and recorded all of his results meticulously into a laboratory notebook. He was constantly looking for new combinations of materials and firing methods to get new glazes and improved results. He looked for reliable, reproducible processes that could be introduced into his small factory. And he inspired his men to improve right along with the processes by paying careful attention to their working conditions, their safety, and their security. His men loved him, and he succeeded to become the foremost manufacturer of his day.

Wedgewood's paid very careful attention to the fashions of the day, and strived to keep abreast. This required an approach that was constantly changing--resting on one's laurels and yesterday's success would only lead to failure. He produced much that was top of the line, and learned to market to the trend setters and royalty, then moving the product into the growing middle class.

The setting in which he struggled was the early industrial revolution, where change was accelerating in Britain through a confluence of forces that are only poorly understood even today. Giants seemed to stalk the earth, and Wedgewood came to know many of them. He knew James Watt, and his metal-working partner Mathew Boulton, who at one point even tried to compete with him. This was the era of canal-building, and Wedgewood played a big role in this too.

Much of this story is contained, though in much less detail, in _The Lunar Men_ by Jenny Uglow, which I would also recommend. Curiously, though, Wedgewood is counted as one of the five central members of the Lunar Society (encompassing a whole column in the index), this is mentioned only once by Dolan.

The author has done an outstanding job in this book and it is well written. The sixteen pages of glossy photos contribute a lot to the book too. The story told here is an inspiring one, and will certainly encourage the reader to learn more about this astounding era.

Average customer rating:

Edwards & Hampson together makes sense.
A valuable reference book

English Dry-Bodied Stoneware
Diana Edwards
Manufacturer: Antique Collectors Club Dist A/C
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1851492887

Customer Reviews:

Edwards & Hampson together makes sense........2001-02-15

Rodney Hampson has been a key source of information about the history of the Staffordshire pottery industry for authors and scholars, so it's nice to see him partnering with Diana Edwards on a subject that's been largely overlooked. The results are mostly positive. There is a bit too much emphasis on Wedgwood at the expense of the lesser-known manufacturers. Photography is only so-so. The lighting of engine-turned and press-molded items is too flat, making it difficult to see the detail that most fully describes the objects.. In general, a welcome addition to the literature of ceramics and another worthwhile effort from the Antique Collectors' Club.

A valuable reference book.......2000-06-16

This is a valuable and worthy reference book for anyone who wants to know more about Wedgwood and the contemporary manufacturers of the period. The color plates and black and white pictures provide assistance in identifying all types of dry-bodied english stoneware. During the period there were numerous manufacturers duplicating the same type of designs. This book provides a wonderful guide for collectors and antique dealers.

Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre.The Work of Daisy Makei

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Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre.The Work of Daisy Makei
Una Des Fontaines
Manufacturer: Richard Dennis Publications Dist
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ARTES ETRURIAE RENASCUNTUR JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, F.R.S. 1730-1795

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ARTES ETRURIAE RENASCUNTUR JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, F.R.S. 1730-1795
HARRY BARNARD
Manufacturer: Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S3EUYG

BEN SHAHN ON ANDRE FRANCOIS, C. S. LEWIS, JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, THE GUGGENHEIMS: HORIZON: A MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS: MAY 1959: VOLUME 1, #5

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BEN SHAHN ON ANDRE FRANCOIS, C. S. LEWIS, JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, THE GUGGENHEIMS: HORIZON: A MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS: MAY 1959: VOLUME 1, #5
Joseph J.: (Editor): Thorndike
Manufacturer: American Horizon.American Heritage Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LY4KG0

Benjamin Franklin and botany: Medallion portraits of Franklin and his botanically-minded friends

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Benjamin Franklin and botany: Medallion portraits of Franklin and his botanically-minded friends
Josiah Wedgwood
Manufacturer: Garden Club of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000876K68

Check-list of Wedgwood old blue historical plates: And other views of the United States produced by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd., for the sole import of Jones, McDuffee & Stratton Co

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Check-list of Wedgwood old blue historical plates: And other views of the United States produced by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd., for the sole import of Jones, McDuffee & Stratton Co
Frank Stefano
Manufacturer: F. Stefano
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006W8VP8

Classical Wedgwood Designs: The Sources and Their Use and the Relationship of Wedgwood Jasper Ware to the Classical Revival of the Eighteenth Century

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Classical Wedgwood Designs: The Sources and Their Use and the Relationship of Wedgwood Jasper Ware to the Classical Revival of the Eighteenth Century
Josiah] Macht, Carol [Wedgwood
Manufacturer: Gramercy Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LQWYJS

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Collector's handbooks
N. Hudson Moore
Manufacturer: Frederick A. Stokes Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B00085SOG4

Customer Reviews:

A Role Model inLiving in the Japanese Language for Mastery.......2000-12-22

Donald Keene's personal story on his life-long devotion to the study of Japanese never fails to attract those interested in Japanese and Japan.

I find his accidental first encounter with a strange language, Japanese, quite amusing. A mistake to put a record on a player has eventually led young Keene to dare to learn Japanese and finally to write one of the most comprehensive history of Japanese literature several years ago. My vivid memory is that on a new-year TV program Keene and a notable Japanese poet talked about Japanese literature. The Japanese poet was never equal to Keene on topics in Japanese literature. It might be true that Keene's profound knowledge and appreciation of Japanese literature has no rival even in Japan, maybe except Dr. Jinichi Konishi, Professor Emeritus of Tsukuba University.

In this work, Keene puts an exciting and enchanting account of mishaps, adventures, good luck with Japanese which fascinated and nurtured the author as a distinguished Japan scholar.

I especially love to read his struggle and clever strategy of how he finally reached Tokyo and then, without staying there for even a night he took a night train for Kyoto from which his literary quest originated.

I believe we can enjoy reading detailed episodes that reveal his solid dedication and patience in learning Japanese and Japan. The author's well-thought-out expressions often help us discover the best way to describe in plain English some peculiar aspects of Japanese culture.

Interesting, personal and written with verve!.......2000-09-08

As someone living in Japan I enjoyed reading this book. Donald Keene is one of the great scholars on Japanese literature and equally at home in it's many facetted culture. The work Dr. Keene has delivered with this autobiography has the feel of many years of being submerged in a fascinating as well as a, for a Westerner, incredibly complex literary culture written in a wonderfully easy to understand style. Not only for those interested in Japanese literature and culture, but also for those who just want to have a good read. While traveling or before going to sleep. Nothing deep, but personal and a joy to read!

A personable and insightful autobiography of a great scholar.......1998-10-07

Donald Keene is not only one of the WestÕs great literary and cultural translators of Japan, he is an important figure in the history of modern Japanese literature. In this readable and inspiring autobiography, Keene succinctly recalls his experiences with Japan, its language and its culture, and the numerous academic and literary figures he has encountered.

Keene, like many early Japan scholars in the United States, was initially trained by the military for intelligence work during World War II in the Pacific. Most of the book deals with his life between the war years, when he first struggled with the Japanese language, through the 1960s, when he was at the height of his associations with such famous Japanese writers as Yasunari Kawabata, Kobo Abe and Yukio Mishima. Keene was a great fan of Mishima, who is probably the most legendary Japanese writer in the West. Keene knew him well professionally, and openly discusses his efforts to lobby for a Nobel Prize for Mishima. He also talks about the dejection that overtook Mishima for never winning. Keene relates his own sense of loss at the suicides of both Kawabata and, especially, Mishima, and even finds fault with himself for not recognizing sooner the trajectory of MishimaÕs demise.

Keene's autobiography is highly recommended to anyone interested in the literature or scholarship of Japan, as well as to anyone interested in the life of an unusual and inspiring individual.

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