Lewis Hyde defends the concept of the "cultural commons." How has our cultural heritage, the store of ideas, art, and inventions we have inherited from the past, come to be seen as "intellectual property?" Have we taken the concept of "ownership" too far?
Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic with a particular interest in the public life of the imagination. His 1983 book, The Gift, illuminates and defends the non-commercial portion of artistic practice. Trickster Makes This World, published in 1998, uses a group of ancient myths to argue for the kind of disruptive intelligence all cultures need if they are to remain lively, flexible, and open to change. His newest book is *Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership* about our cultural commons, the vast store of ideas, inventions, and works of art that we have inherited from the past and continue to produce. A MacArthur Fellow and former director of undergraduate creative writing at Harvard University, Hyde teaches during the fall semesters at Kenyon College, where he is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing.