Roger Pulvers has had the sort of free-ranging, multifaceted career that seems like a dream in this specialized age, when academics labor in their narrow professional silos.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944 to Jewish-American parents, he came to Japan in 1967, began teaching at Kyoto Sangyo University and was soon writing short stories and essays about his new home. In 1972 he went to Australia to take up a university lectureship in Japanese — and started what was to be a long and still-continuing shuttle between the two countries.
In Australia Pulvers became an acclaimed playwright and theater director, as well as an Australian citizen. In Japan he made many friendships in the arts world, while publishing a stream of books, from novels to textbooks, in both English and Japanese. (The total is now approaching 50.) He also wrote the Counterpoint column for The Japan Times from 2005 to 2013.