A practicing polyglot, Alex Gross has meddled in more nations and cultures than he ever had the right to do—and he has left a few traces of his activities behind him in all of them. Selig-like, he seamlessly blended into his surroundings and propelled both artistic and political motion in Germany, the UK, the US, and Holland. Some of the leftover detritus of his activities has included an artists' guild in New York, the first "underground" newspaper in Berlin, and a satire that led the police to close another publication in London. And along the way he has constantly spawned articles, playscripts, translations, productions, and even the odd computer program, as a glance at this website will amply confirm. Over the last thirty-five years Chinese Medicine, the Ancient Greek Theatre, Artificial Intelligence, Dramaturgy for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Translation in Theory and Practice, Radio Announcing in Spain, Environmentalism, and unceasingly Language and Linguistics have been just some of the causes and activities where he has left tangible and legible traces.

He remains an unrepentant spokesperson for the 'Sixties and the many social advances it kindled, and he is just as active today in promoting causes and bypassing obstacles as he was then. He believes that all fundamentalisms are fundamentally false, whether religious, political, or even linguistic, because they try to cram the vast complexity of the world into a few simplistic categories, and he does whatever he can to weaken their sway. By turns both lofty elitist and enraged populist, he is particularly angered by any attempt to throttle debate or limit access to information.

But over the years he has probably settled down somewhat, becoming a bit more manageable, choosing his battles carefully and dividing his time between Woodstock and NYC. He has taught a postgraduate seminar on translation history at NYU and hopes to write a truly popular book about how language really works. He has recently published The Untold Sixties: When Hope Was Born.

Languages Spoken Fluently: French, German, Italian, & Spanish; also British English (plus of course the American variety).

Languages Translated: French, German, Italian, & Spanish.

Languages Studied and/or Coping Ability Picked Up In Situ: Russian, Modern Greek, Chinese, Dutch, Catalan, & some form of all-purpose Scandinavian.

Languages Studied but Not Spoken: Latin, Ancient Greek.

Periods of Residence in Europe:
Total: twelve years:
1953—54, mainly Italy (six months), with a month in the UK;
1955—56, Spain (eighteen months);
1957—58, Italy (seven months), Austria (three months), Greece (five months), Germany (three months);
1961—68 (with his wife), Italy (two years), Yugoslavia & Greece (two months), England (five years, including two years alternating between London & Berlin;
1969—71 nine months (three summers) in London, with the rest of the time in New York.


Summary of Produced Theatre Works:
click here.

Summary of Publications:
Original Articles, Papers, Projects, & Computer Programs:
See virtually every page on this website.

Many other published articles on 'Sixties politics and art world themes.
Educational Chart: The Healing Herbs of China, "bencao tubiao," Sweet Chi Press, 1985.

Translations:
Peter Weiss: The Investigation, Oratorio in Eleven Cantos, Calder & Boyars, London, 1966;
Protais Asseng: Enough Is Enough, Ubu Repertory Theater Publications, 1986.

Education, Fellowships, & Teaching Experience:
B.A., Bard College; Italian Language: Corso Medio, Università Italiana per Stranieri, Perugia; Spanish Language: Cursos para Extranjeros, Universidad de Granada; Writer-in-Residence in Berlin under the Berliner Künstler-Programm, 1966—68; Diploma in Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine, Tri-State Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1984; Teaching Translation, NYU Translation Studies Program, 1991—93; Presenting Seminar A Practical View of Translation History, NYU Translation Studies Program, 1997-2000.

Practical Translation Experience:
Described in many pieces on this website. Aside from theatre work, many journalistic pieces for the World Press Review, UN reports, commercial texts, etc.

Professional Societies:
Author Member, Dramatists Guild;
Associate Member, Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas;
Author Member, Educational Shareware Cooperative;
Author Member, Association of Shareware Professionals;
Founding Member, New York Circle of Translators;
Active Member, American Translators Association;

Art World Experience:
Creating with his wife the artist Ilene Astrahan light-art works exhibited by major galleries and owned by major collectors; writing art criticism & art politics pieces for several arts publications; creating a foundation for artists and editing its publication.

Body Work:
Six years of training in taiji, qigong, and aikido under gifted oriental and western masters.

Some Other Useful Experiences:
Growing up in a family of map makers and map publishers;
Coming from a family with Christian, Jewish, American, English, French, German, and Hungarian members;
Acting as literary advisor to the Royal Shakespeare Company in London;
Becoming a bilingual radio announcer in Madrid;
Reporting on German radical student groups from Berlin;
Through his wife learning to see the world as a visual artist;
Developing a genuine love and respect for dictionaries, thesauri, and reference works in general, including search engines;
Learning differential diagnosis and how it can also apply to non-medical situations;
Organizing a 'Sixties artists' protest group in New York;
Experiencing and enjoying a five-year window of literacy in Chinese;
Becoming at least moderately computer-literate.