Krishna Winston Memorializes Gunter Grass

When the Nobel Prize-winning German writer Günter Grass died at age 87 this week, The Wall Street Journal turned to Krishna Winston, his translator, for perspective on his life.

According to the Journal’s obituary, Grass was Germany’s best-known contemporary writer “who explored the country’s postwar guilt and in 2006 admitted to serving in one of the Nazis’ most notorious Nazi military units.”

Winston remembered Grass as “a gregarious man who loved cooking and invited his children to sit in on meetings with translators that often lasted several days…”

“I had to keep reminding myself that he never even finished high school,” said Winston.

Winston is the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, professor of German studies, professor of environmental studies, and coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship.