Otto Steinmayer: Publications, Editing, Translations,

together with texts prepared and posted as internet resources


Note: Many of these texts can be viewed on the internet at the URLs indicated in blue.

Book or part of book

Jalai Jako' Iban: a Basic Grammar of the Iban Language of Sarawak. Star Company: Kuching, Sarawak, 1999.   (Reviewed by Prof. Alexander Adelaar in Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 35, 2004, 212-213.)

Herculei Labores and Festina Lente: Two Essays  Translated from the Adagia of Desiderius Erasmus.  Lundu, Sarawak, by the author, 1999.  With introduction and notes.  Also published on the internet at: http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/herc/ and http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/speude/

"Classic Problems: Classic Solutions." in Challenges of Reading the New and the Old , ed. Lim Chee Seng, Dept. of English, Universiti Malaya, in association with MACLALS, 1995.

"Classical Literary References to the Electric Ray," Appendix D in Whittaker, V.P.: The Cholinergic Neuron and its Target: the Electromotor Innervation of the Electric Ray Torpedo as a Model. Birkhuser, Basel, 1992.

"Parnassus set by the ears: music and poets in early 18th century England," in Perspectives , 1989, Kuala Lumpur, pp. 21-51.

Articles in Scholarly Journals

"Letter from Lundu" [5].  Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 38, 2007, 207-209.

Review of J. C. B. Petropoulos: Eroticism in Ancient and Medieval Greek Poetry. In Classical Bulletin  81.2 (2005) p. 219-220

"Letter from Lundu" [4]. Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 37, 2006, 193-194.

Review of Sophie Gibson: Aristoxenus of Tarentum and the Birth of Musicology.   In the (on-line) Bryn Mawr  Classical Review   http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2005/2005-10-20.html

"Letter from Lundu" [3].  Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 36, 2005, 229-230.

Review of Bob Reece: The White Rajahs of Sarawak, a Borneo Dynasty (Archipelago Press, Singapore).   Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 35, 2004, 209-210.

"A Letter from Lundu" [2]. Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 35, 2004, 184-185.

"A Letter from Lundu" [1]. Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 34, 2003, 151-152.

Review of Judith Heimann: The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and his Remarkable Life (University of Hawai'i Press).  Borneo Research Bulletin, vol. 33, 2002, 191-194. {reprinted from publication in the New Straits Times.  See below.]

Review of Daryl Hine: Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of The Greek Anthology (Princeton University Press).   Bryn Mawr Classical Review.   http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-04-02.html

    response by the Lambda Classical Caucus:   http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-04-13.html

    reply by Otto Steinmayer:   http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-04-21.html

Review of Yong K.T., Tan Sri Datuk Amar Stephen : A Life Twice Lived: A Memoir  and Ong Kee Hui, Tan Sri Datuk (Dr): Footprints on Sarawak: Memoirs...  Journal of the Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society  vol. lxxiii part 1, 2000, 126-129.

Review of Kenneth Rexroth, Poems from the Greek Anthology, expanded edition. Bryn Mawr Classical Review http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-11-06.html

Review of Morwood Four Tragedies of Euripides (Oxford University Press). Bryn Mawr Classical Review http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-06-05.html

Review of John G. Younger, Music in the Ancient Mediterranean. Bryn Mawr Classical Review http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-11-22.html

Response to Who Killed Homer? Arion , third series, 7.2 (fall 1999) 181-184.

"Groping in the Closet: Response to Walker's 'This Peculiar Acuteness of Feeling'". Borneo Research Bulletin. 1998 (vol. 29) pp. 203-208.

"The Bow in the Groves of India," Arion , third series 5.1, (spring/summer 1997) 130-142.

Review of Spenser St. John, The Life of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak . [Reprint with an introduction by R.H.W. Reece, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1994] in Borneo Research Bulletin , vol 27 (1996), 159-162.

Review of James Ritchie, Bruno Manser: The Inside Story . [Summer Times, Singapore, 1994] in Borneo Research Bulletin , vol 27 (1996), 162-166.

"A Distant Music" review of Martin L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford University Press) Arion third series, 4.3 (winter 1997) 223-236.

"Bow and Arrow in the Groves of Ind" with Michael A. B. Deakin. Function , vol. 21 part 1 (February 1997)

"Under the Toga" Times Literary Supplement , no. 4715, 13 August 1993 (Letters).

"The loincloth of Borneo." Sarawak Museum Journal, vol. xlii, no. 63 (new series), Dec. 1991, pp. 43-59, ills.

"Satyrs and the People With Tails: a possible reference to Borneo in Ptolemy's Geography?" Sarawak Gazette . vol. cxviii, no. 1517, Sept. 1991, pp. 29-32.

"The Borneo Literature Bureau: publications in Iban and other Bornean languages: a bibilography." in Borneo Research Bulletin , v. 22, #2, Sept. 1990, pp. 114-129.

"The 'palang' and Kmastra 7.2.14-24" in Purba, the Journal of the Malaysian Museum Society. 9/1990, pp. 67-72.

"Bacchius Geron's Introduction to the art of music" [an annotated translation and textual study of this 4th. c. A.D. theorist.] in Journal of Music Theory , fall 1985, pp. 271-298.

LITERARY JOURNALISM

Column: "Classic Ground." The New Straits Times.

  1. 7 Aug 1991: "Fresh from the morning of the world." [Introductory; Ptolemy on Malaya]
  2. 21 Aug 1991: "Love, death, and everything." [the Greek Anthology]
  3. 4 Sept 1991: "The best of the Akhaians." [Homer, Iliad .]
  4. 18 Sept 1991: "Seascape with monsters." [Homer, Odyssey .]
  5. 2 Oct 1991: "In the beginning was the word." [Sanskrit poetry.]
  6. 16 Oct 1991: "The music may be gone but the words live on." [lyric poetry]
  7. 30 Oct 1991: "One good reason to learn Latin." [Roman poetry, Catullus]
  8. 13 Nov 1991: "The goat-winning tragedies of Aeschylus." [Aeschylus]
  9. 27 Nov 1991: "Finding a common poetic language." [Chinese poetry]
  10. 11 Dec 1991: "The ancient art of 'painting white black.'" [rhetoric]
  11. 25 Dec 1991: "History and the disease called politics." [Thucydides]
  12. 8 Jan 1992: "The Greeks and their gods." [ancient religion.]
  13. 22 Jan 1992: "Crossing the barriers between the past and us." [general reflections on the appreciation of the past]
  14. 19 Feb 1992: "Time and the rhythms of life and literature." [differing perceptions of time in temperate and tropical area poetry.]
  15. 4 Mar 1992: "Fables tell us what life is really like." [Aesop]
  16. 18 March 1992: "The alternative to prettified words." [ancient prose.]
  17. 1 Apr 1992: "Feast of funnies from the ancients." [strange stories]
  18. 15 Apr 1992: "Feelings of the past by post." [letters]
  19. 29 Apr 1992: "The best things of life to the Greeks." [general, on the act of writing, and culture.]
  20. 13 May 1992: "The pity and terror of a great tragedy." [Sophocles, Oedipus the King .]
  21. 27 May 1992: "Sweet and bitter are the uses of satire."
  22. 10 June 1992: "The curling tendrils of Dayak poetry."
  23. 24 June 1992: "The beginnings of nature poetry." [pastoral]
  24. 8 July 1992: "National Literature a long time coming." [the concept of "national language and literature in antiquity]
  25. 22 July 1992: "Socrates' search for the Good in life." [Socrates, life and ethical philosophy.]
  26. 5 Aug 1992: "The most tragic of the poets." [Euripides]
  27. 19 Aug 1992: "The King of Old Comedy." [Aristophanes]
  28. 2 Sept 1992: "Learning life's whys and hows through literature." [poetry; Plutarch On the Daimon of Sokrates. final column.]

Book reviews, also in The New Straits Times , and New Sunday Times .

  1. 10 Apr 1991: "Anti-historical novel of unrelieved misery." Charles Palliser, The quincunx .
  2. 31 May 1991: "An insight into Brooke's raj." Henry Keppel, The expedition to Borneo of HMS Dido.
  3. 24 July 1991: "It's love that will make the world go on." Nicholas Mosley, Hopeful monsters . [novel]
  4. 28 July 1991: "Hollywood hacks and schmucks." Ian Hamilton, Writers in Hollywood.
  5. 11 Aug 1991: "Their majesties' 'secret histories.'" Elizabeth Longford, The Oxford book of royal anecdotes.
  6. 23 Aug 1991: "The future as we will suffer it." Alvin Toffler, Powershift .
  7. 28 Aug 1991: "Seven of the best from Argentina." Raul Galvez, From the ashen land of the virgin: conversations with Bioy Casares, Borges, Deveni, Etchecopar, Ocampo, Orozco, Sabato in Argentina.
  8. 30 October 1991: "Marquez makes history into magic." Gabriel Garca Mrquez, The General in his Labyrinth. Penguin.
  9. 28 December 1991: "The best reads of the year" Gabriel Garca Mrquez, The General in his Labyrinth. Penguin.
  10. 15 Feb 1992: "Continuity and kinks, from Mosley's point of view." Nicholas Mosley, Imago Bird. [novel]
  11. 1 Mar 1992: "Thanks for these reprints." William O. Krohn, In Borneo jungles , and Carl Lumholz, Through central Borneo.
  12. 29 Mar 1992: "The master of pun and fun." S.J. Perelman, The most of S.J. Perelman.
  13. 11 Apr 1992: "Quantum leap for the 'experimental' novel." Nicholas Mosley, Catastrophe practice and Judith .
  14. 2 May 1992: "Wrong views of the Balinese corrected." Gordon D. Jensen and Luh Ketut Suryani, The Balinese people: a reinvestigation of character. OUP
  15. 13 June 1992: "History as it should be written." Graham Saunders, Bishops and Brookes: the anglican mission and the Brooke raj in Sarawak 1848-1941. OUP
  16. 15 August 1992: "Early Sarawak sketched with style and sensibility." Harriette McDougall, Sketches of our life in Sarawak, OUP
  17. 2 January 1993: "More best reads of 1993." Brian Vickers, Bali, a Paradise Created. Periplus.
  18. 3 April 1993 [Business Times ] "A guide to state of local arts in the 80s." Kee Thuan Chye, just in so many words. Heinmann.
  19. 24 April 1993: "In search of the monkey with the big snout." David MacDonald, Expedition to Borneo . S. Abdul Majeed.
  20. 8 May 1993: "Borneo before good human things got lost." Victor King, comp. and ed., The Best of Borneo Travel . OUP.
  21. 15 May 1993: "A major 'event' in Borneo studies." Charles Hose, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo. OUP.
  22. 25 Sept 1993: "OCD is OK but is it VFM?" The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations.
  23. 4 Dec 1993: "Post-modern satire on real life." Malcolm Bradbury, Doctor Criminale . Penguin.
  24. 22 Jan 1994: "Borneo before the deluge." Eric Hansen, Stranger in the Forest.
  25. 19 Feb 1994: "Hornaday's hunt." William T. Hornaday, The Experiences of a Naturalist in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo.
  26. 5 March 1994: "Photos say it all for Borneo's living beauty." Max Lawrence and Paul Chai, Borneo Alive.
  27. 21 May 1994: "Antiquity for the Common Reader." John Boardman et a;., The Oxford History of the Classical World.
  28. 30 July 1994: "Iban way to cope with change." Peter M. Kedit, Iban Bejalai .
  29. 29 Oct 1994: "Ritchie's ragout." James Ritchie, Bruno Manser: The Inside Story .
  30. 8 April 1995: "One of the noblest of men." Spenser St. John, The Life of Sir James Brooke.
  31. 12 April 1995: "Poets, by all means get worked up." Letter to editor, Literary Page.
  32. 13 May 1995: "Great guide to paradise." Adrian Vickers, Travelling to Bali.
  33. 30 Aug 1995: "Tough act following a tougher one." Joseph Heller, Closing Time.
  34. 18 January 1996: "Elegy in memory of the late judge Eustoffe." [English translation]
  35. 8 February 1996: "Elegiac verse to the memory of the ex-judge". [Latin text]
  36. 28 April 1996: "In defence of Abdullah Hussain." Letter to editor, Literary Page.
  37. 22 Oct 1996: "Understanding the middle voice."
  38. 16 Nov 1996: "Chances are you will like this book." Peter L. Bernstein, Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk.
  39. 11 Jan 1997: "Truth duller than fiction." Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.
  40. 8 March 1997: "Getting a grip on shadow play." David Irvine, Leather Gods and Wooden Heroes: Java's Classical Wayang.
  41. 26 April 1997: "The best book on the subject." Robin Baker, Sperm Wars: the Science of Sex.
  42. 2 August 1997: "Postcards from the past." Rajah Brooke's Borneo .
  43. 9 August 1997: "Dyeing that's certainly not dead." Kim Jane Saunders, Contemporary Tie and Dye Textiles of Indonesia.
  44. 1 April 1998: "Charged with grand larceny." Poking a little fun at Amir Muhammad.
  45. 3 Februaru 1999: "Poignant and panoramic." Bob Reece, Masa Jepun: Sarawak under the Japanese, 1941-1945.
  46. 19 January 2000: "Burma: Suffering is part of life." Rory Maclean, Under the Dragon: Travels in a Betrayed Land.
  47. 31 May 2000: "Champion of Iban self-sufficiency." Vernon L. Poritt, Bapak Guru Orang Bisaya, A Pioneer in Social Experimentation in Sarawak: Ro Bewsher,1910-1998.
  48. 9 August 2000: "The Most Offending Soul Alive." Judith M. Heimann, The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and his Remarkable Life. New Reality , vol 3. no. 3 (May/June 2000), 8.
  49. 7 January 2001: "Useful and beautiful." Heidi Munan, Sarawak Crafts: methods, materials, and motifs.
  50. 7 March 2001: "The Orang Asli as they really are." Colin Nicholas, The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources: Indigenous Politics, Development and Identity in Peninsular Malaysia.
  51. 1 April 2001: " Dennis Lau--images that capture the soul." Dennis Lau, Borneo: a Photographic Journey.

Translation

Editing

Texts and other resources created and posted by me on the internet