Samuel Noah Kramer

Samuel Noah Kramer (September 28, 1897 – November 26, 1990) was one of the world's leading Assyriologists, an expert in Sumerian history and Sumerian language. Quotes The Sumerologist is one of the narrowest of specialists in the highly specialized academic halls of learning, a well-nigh perfect example of the man who "knows mostest about the leastest." History Begins at Sumer (1956), Introduction So whenever I give a lecture, somebody from the audience gets up and says, "Dr Kramer, ... how do you know how to pronounce these words?" And my answer then is as follows: If one of the dead Sumerians that Leonard Woolley dug up at Ur, if he was miraculously resurrected and came into the room and he heard me say, [speaks Sumerian], he would say: "That man Kramer, he’s doing very well; he’s pronouncing his words and I understand them. But my goodness does he have a Jewish accent." Interviewed by John R. Maier for Brockport Television Writers Forum (6 October 1981), YouTube; Transcript External links Category:1897 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Jews from the United States Category:Historians from the United States Category:Translators from the United States Category:Orientalists Category:Autobiographers from the United States Category:Immigrants to the United States Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society