Finally back in print: The definitive biography of the legendary Japanese writer-legendary as much for his tumultuous life and macabre suicide as for his Nobel-nominated writings At forty-five, Yukio Mishima was the outstanding Japanese writer of his generation, celebrated both at home and abroad for The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. In 1970 he startled the world by stepping out onto a balcony in Tokyo before an assembly of troops and plunging a sword into his abdomen; a disciple then beheaded him, completing the ritual of hara-kiri. John Nathan's riveting biography traces the life of this tortured, nearly superhuman personality. Mishima survived a grotesque childhood, and subsequently his sadomasochistic impulses became manifest-as did an increasing obsession with death as the supreme beauty. Nathan, who knew Mishima profession-ally and personally, interviewed family, colleagues, and friends to unmask the various-often seemingly contradictory-personae of the genius who felt called by "a glittering destiny no ordinary man would be permitted."

約翰•內森（1940- ）

美國人，日本研究學者，著名日本文學翻譯傢和評論傢，加利福尼亞大學聖塔芭芭拉分校東亞語言與文化研究係教授。

大江健三郎、三島由紀夫和安部公房等重要日本作傢作品的英文本譯者。

齣版專著《大江健三郎：描繪夢境的人》（1995）、《索尼秘史》（1999）、《無約束的日本》（2004）、《夏目漱石傳》（2018）等。

1994年，大江健三郎赴斯德哥爾摩接受諾貝爾文學奬，內森為其隨行人員。

內森一度緻力於攝製日本題材的影視作品。1982年，其導演的紀錄片The Colonel Goes to Japan獲艾美奬。