RYDER, Arthur William. Oberlin, Ohio 8.3.1877 — Berkeley 21.3.1938. U.S. Indologist. Professor in Berkeley. Son of William Henry R. and Mary Elizabeth Bushnell (d. 1878). Began studies at Ann Arbor, but graduated 1894 from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., then studies at Harvard (A.B. 1897, under Lanman) and in 1898-1901 at Leipzig and Berlin. Ph.D. 1901 Leipzig, under Windisch (also listened to Geldner). In 1897-98 Instructor in Latin at Phillips Academy; 1901-02 Assistant and 1902-06 Instructor in Sanskrit at Harvard. From 1906 taught Sanskrit at University of California in Berkeley: 1906-08 Instructor, 1908-19 Assistant Professor, 1919-25 Associate Professor, 1925-38 Professor of Sanskrit, all the time chairing his one-man department. Died of sudden heart attack when teaching a class consisting of one student only. Unmarried.

Ryder is best known of his fluent translations of Sanskrit works. His dramatic translations were also staged in California and elsewhere. He wrote own poetry (but never published them himself) and was a famous chess player.

Publications: Diss. Die Ṛbhu’s im Ṛgveda. 49 p. Lp. 1901.

– “Note on bṛhácchandas, AV. III, 12, 3”, JAOS 23, 1902, 77f.; “Kṛṣṇanātha’s Commentary on the Bengal Recension of the Çakuntalā”, JAOS 23, 1902, 79-83; “Notes on the Mṛcchakaṭika”, JAOS 27:2, 1907, 418-454.

– Translated: The Little Clay Cart. 176 p. H.O.S. 9. Cambridge Mass. 1905; Women’s Eyes. Being verses translated from Sanskrit. 100 p. 1910 (Bhartṛhari); Kalidasa: Translations of Shakuntala, and other works. 216 p. 1912; Twenty-two Goblins. 282 p. L & Toronto 1917; Relatives. Being further verses translated from Sanskrit. 103 p. 1919; Pañcatantra. 477 p. Chicago 1925, 10th impr. 1972; Gold’s Gloom; tales from the Panchatantra. 153 p. Chicago 1925; Dasakumaracarita. The ten princes. 248 p. 1927, 3rd impr. Chicago 1960; The Bhagavad-Gītā. 139 p. Chicago 1929.

– “How to live happily on nothing a year”, Fs. Lanman 1909, 213-215 (some verses from the Mbh. in poetic translation); a number of further translation in University of California chronicle.

– G. R. Noyes (ed.), Original poems: together with translations from the Sanskrit. 186 p. Berkeley 1939.

Sources: Who Was Who in Am. 1; Enc. Univ. Illustr. Appendice 9; Stache-Weiske 2017, 555; Wikipedia with photo.