Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) was a British explorer, translator, writer, Orientalist, ethnologist and diplomat known for his travels across Asia, Africa and the Americas. A polyglot, he could speak 29 European, Asian and African languages, and is known for translating many of the classics of world literature into English.
As a translator, apart from Vikram and the Vampire, Burton is credited to have brought forth English translations of the Arabian Nights (as The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night in 1885), the Kama Sutra of Vatsayana (1883) and The Perfumed Garden (1886) among others.
