Although highly learned, Waley avoided academic posts and most often wrote for a general audience. He chose not to be a specialist but to translate a wide and personal range of classical literature. Starting in the 1910s and continuing steadily almost until his death in 1966, these translations started with poetry, such as "A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems" (1918) and "Japanese Poetry: The Uta" (1919), then an equally wide range of novels, such as "The Tale of Genji" (1925–26), an 11th-century Japanese work, and "Monkey", from 16th-century China. Waley also presented and translated Chinese philosophy, wrote biographies of literary figures, and maintained a lifelong interest in both Asian and Western paintings.