Oxford where he began to work on Sanskrit texts from the Prajñāpāramitā tradition. He continued to work on these texts for the rest of his life. Conze was married twice: to Dorothea Finkelstein and to Muriel Green. He had one daughter with Dorothea. In 1979 Conze self-published two volumes of memoirs entitled Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic. Conze produced a third volume which contained material considered to be too inflammatory or libelous to publish while the subjects were alive. No copy of the third volume is known to exist. The Memoirs are the principal sources for Conze's biography and reveal much about his personal life and attitudes. Scholarship Conze was educated in several German Universities and showed a propensity for languages. He claimed that by twenty-four, he knew fourteen languages. Conze's first major published work was on the theory of dialectical materialism. This continues to receive attention, with his book The Principle of Contradiction being translated by Holger Heine in 2016. Following a mid-life crisis Conze turned to Buddhism and was particularly influenced by D. T. Suzuki. He made his name for his editions and translations of Sanskrit texts of the Buddhist Prajñāpāramitā literature. He published translations of all the principal texts of the genre, including the Aṣṭasāhasrikā (8000 Line), Ratnaguṇasamcayagāthā, Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā (25,000 Line), Vajracchedikā, and Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya. All of these show the explicit influence of Suzuki's Theosophy infused Zen Buddhism. However, the only permanent academic post he was offered had to be turned down because US immigration officials declined him a work permit on the basis of his past as a Communist. A glance at a complete bibliography of Conze's oeuvre confirms that he was a man of industry and focus. His contribution to the field of Buddhist Studies, particularly of the Prajñāpāramitā literature, has had a major influence on subsequent generations. Legacy Edward Conze was and continues to be a polarizing figure. As the great Indologist Gerald James Larson said in his review of The Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic, "He was denied a permanent academic position throughout his life, even though his scholarly competence and productivity easily matched and frequently surpassed most of his contemporaries. [...] He treasured the Buddhist notions of anātman, the practice of quiet meditation and the perfection of wisdom, yet he was continually embroiled in personal squabbles in which he was capable of behaviour that was anything but selfless, reflective or wise. He valued