Who is Stephen Mitchell from Tao Te Ching and what is their importance?

The translator of the TAO TE CHING, Stephen Mitchell is a native of Brooklyn, NY. He studied at Amherst, the University of Paris, and Yale, and later "unstudies" through fourteen years of Zen training, initially under the Zen Master Seung Sahn, whom he quotes in the endnotes. He indicates a closeness to Continuum founder Emilie Conrad Da'oud and requests that she comment on some chapters. Mitchell works from literal translations and tries to capture Lao-tzu's mind. As a result, he finds it necessary to render loosely at times. In those cases, he provides the literal text in end notes. Through the endnotes, Mitchell makes himself an integral part of the book.