A legendary pioneer scholar of Asian studies, Alexander von Stael-Holstein (1877-1937) was a German-Baltic aristocrat
and an emigre of Czarist Russia displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution. He took up an adjunct teaching position at Peking
University and was subsequently a visiting professor at Harvard for the academic year 1928-29 and full professor of Central
Asian Studies at Harvard from 1929 till his passing away. Throughout his career, Stael-Holstein repeatedly emphasized
the importance of Sanskrit and Tibetan for the reconstruction of ancient Chinese phonetics. A signification portion of
his works consists of translations and comparisons of Buddhist, Sanskrit, and Chinese Buddhist scriptures. The Academic
Knight Between East and West is the first and only comprehensive biography on Alexander von Stael-Holstein's life and
academic achievements."