Zen and Zen Classics

xviii, 289 pp. Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964) ranks with D.T. Suzuki--whose close friend and collaborator he was--as one of the leading interpreters of Zen. Yet, until this volume, Blyth's writings have not been readily available outside of Japan. an Englishman, Blyth went to Japan in 1940 to continue his study of Zen. Interned as an enemy alien during World War II, he began writing in prison. After the war, he was appointed tutor to the Crown Prince. His great work, the five-volume Zen and Zen Classics, was published in the 1960s. Frederick Franck, who has been reading Blyth for decades, has now distilled the essence of this work into the present volume, which underlines Blyth's simplicity, humor and rare ability to combine Zen and Christianity.