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Stephen Becker

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Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of many works, including Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and The Forgotten and André Malraux’s The Conquerors.

He was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1927, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of Paul Harris and Guggenheim Fellowships and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington Col Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of many works, including Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and The Forgotten and André Malraux’s The Conquerors.

He was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1927, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of Paul Harris and Guggenheim Fellowships and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee’s surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).

Equally distinguished as a translator, a biographer, a commentator on the popular arts, and a novelist, Stephen Becker brings to his fiction a breadth of experience with world culture and human behavior which yields moral complexity and psychological verity in his work. Two major themes intertwine through his novels—the problems of justice and the necessity for self-knowledge and self-fulfillment.

Becker's examination of society's structure and limitations and his portrayal of men seeking "grace under pressure" is a significant contribution to contemporary fiction. The existential premises of the works—individuals finding meaning inside the arbitrary bounds of social order—reflect our acceptance of the civilization we have built.

Read more: Stephen (David) Becker Biography - JRank Articles http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4144...

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Stephen Becker’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 1,593 ratings · 228 reviews · 43 distinct works • Similar authors

	A Covenant With Death 4.08 avg rating — 264 ratings — published 1964 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chinese Bandit 4.04 avg rating — 166 ratings — published 1975 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Mandarin 4.03 avg rating — 68 ratings — published 1979 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The blue-eyed Shan 4.18 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 1982 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Juice: A Novel 3.17 avg rating — 64 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Far East Trilogy: The Chinese Bandit, The Last Mandarin, and The Blue-Eyed Shan 3.88 avg rating — 43 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	When the War Is Over: A Novel 4.18 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 1968 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dog Tags 4.12 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1978 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Rendezvous in Haiti 3.47 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1987 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Season of the Stranger: A Novel 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1951 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Stephen Becker

The Far East Trilogy (3 books)
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Stephen Becker

4.06 avg rating — 284 ratings

Quotes by Stephen Becker (?)

“...and they buried him there, just off the trail, in a glade ten miles from the majestic Salween, a long way from home, but what dead man is not?”
― Stephen Becker, Blue Eyed Shan

tags: adventure, philosophy

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“Your soul does not exist. I have seen men in all conditions and states of lust and madness—fetishists, syphilitics, even Americans.”
― Stephen Becker, The Far East Trilogy: The Chinese Bandit, The Last Mandarin, and The Blue-Eyed Shan

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“For sure he deserved it. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. From”
― Stephen Becker, The Far East Trilogy: The Chinese Bandit, The Last Mandarin, and The Blue-Eyed Shan

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Polls

October 2025 New School Classics Poll

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940) 292 pages

53 votes, 31.9%

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934) 318 pages

50 votes, 30.1%

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (1981) 454 pages

28 votes, 16.9%

Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb (1937) 299 pages

18 votes, 10.8%

A Covenant With Death by Stephen Becker (1964) 240 pages

17 votes, 10.2%

166 total votes

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Stephen Becker’s Followers (13)

Stephen Becker

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Combine Editions
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