A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1,000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold more than a million this year alone, thanks to Christopher Nolan
A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1,000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold more than a million this year alone, thanks to Christopher Nolan
Professor Emily Wilson, at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
PHILADELPHIA -- Classics scholar Emily Wilson was in Greece’s Costa Navarino last year when she heard the news that would change her life: Filmmaker Christopher Nolan was planning to release a star-studded adaptation of "The Odyssey," the epic poem that Wilson had spent years painstakingly translating from Homeric Greek into English.
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Professor Emily Wilson, in her office at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, July 4, 2026. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
