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Lewis Hyde's Homepage

Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic with a particular interest in the public life of the imagination. His 1983 book, The Gift, illuminates and defends the non-commercial portion of artistic practice. Trickster Makes This World (1998) uses a group of ancient myths to argue for the kind of disruptive intelligence all cultures need if they are to remain lively, flexible, and open to change. Hyde is currently at work on a book about our “cultural commons,” that vast store of ideas, inventions, and works of art that we have inherited from the past and continue to produce.

A MacArthur Fellow and former director of undergraduate creative writing at Harvard University, Hyde teaches during the fall semesters at Kenyon College, where he is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing. During the rest of the year he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.


Projects & Tools

Past

Freedom To Teach: Claiming Educational Fair Use

"FREEDOM TO TEACH": The Berkman Center at Harvard University is considering a project that we hope will culminate in the widespread circulation of a Statement of Best Practices…


Publications

Dec 4, 2007

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World

25th Anniversary Edition

Book Description, from Amazon: By now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture…

Dec 13, 2005

Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property

The dominant metaphor in England for many years had compared creative work to the harvest of a landed estate. The estate metaphor was bounded by two others, however: commonwealth…

Feb 16, 1999

Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art

Book Description, from Amazon: Trickster Makes This World solidifies Lewis Hyde's reputation as, in Robert Bly's words, "the most subtle, thorough, and brilliant mythologist we…


News

Jun 23, 2010

Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

Next week, Berkman Fellow Lewis Hyde will discuss "Creating an Enduring Commons" at the Tuesday Luncheon Series.


Events

Feb 1, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

Common as Air

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Center Faculty Associate & Professor at Kenyon College

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Center Faculty Associate & Professor at Kenyon College, will discuss his new book, "Common as Air."

Jun 29, 2010 @ 12:30 PM

Creating an Enduring Commons

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

Lewis Hyde's talk will be drawn from a book he has just finished, "Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership."

Event
Jun 9, 2009 @ 12:30 PM

The Second and Third Enclosures

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

In his lunchtime talk, Lewis Hyde will trace the roots of the second enclosure (it goes back at least to the invention of printing); he will describe traditional forms of…

Event
Feb 19, 2008 @ 12:30 PM

The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Project

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow, spoke on "The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Project" and how fiar use can be reclaimed as an expressive right.

Jul 16, 2007 @ 12:00 AM

The Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP)

The Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) is a joint effort of the Berkman Center and the Oxford Internet Institute, which provides top doctoral students from around the world with the…

Feb 13, 2007 @ 12:30 PM

I Own Creative Content, Therefore I Am, Not

Berkman Fellow Lewis Hyde

Berkman Fellow Lewis Hyde argued on behalf of the public's need for access to traditionally public ideas and works for the benefit and progression of society.

Jun 27, 2006 @ 12:30 PM

What Ben Franklin Teaches us about Intellectual Property

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

Lewis Hyde discussed "What Ben Franklin Teaches us about Intellectual Property."

May 3, 2005 @ 12:30 PM

What John Adams Would Think of Intellectual Property

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

Berkman Luncheon Series: 5/3/05 - Lewis Hyde on What John Adams Would Think of Intellectual Property

Mar 13, 2003 @ 12:30 PM

What Is a Commons?

Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow

Berkman Luncheon Series: 3/11/03 - Lewis Hyde on What Is a Commons?