Huynh Sanh Thong

(1926 - 2008)

Born near Saigon in 1926, Huynh Sanh Thong emigrated to the United States in 1948 after spending a year in a French colonial prison as punishment for his involvement with the Vietnamese independence movement. He published his translation of The Tale of Kieu—an epic poem considered to be Vietnam’s premodern masterpiece—in 1973. In 1996 he launched The Vietnam Review while working as a lecturer at Yale.