Edith Grossman
Encyclopedia
Edith Grossman is an award-winning American
translator
specializing in English versions of Spanish
language books. She is one of the most important translators of Latin American fiction in the past century, translating the works of Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa
, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez
, Mayra Montero
, Augusto Monterroso
, Jaime Manrique
, Julián Ríos
and of Álvaro Mutis
.
In a speech delivered at the 2003 PEN Tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, held in New York City on November 5, 2003, she explains her method:
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, Grossman now lives in New York City
. She received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania
, did graduate work at UC Berkeley, and received a Ph.D. from New York University
. Her translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote, published in 2003, is considered one of the finest translations of the Spanish masterpiece in the English language, praised by such author/critics as Carlos Fuentes
and Harold Bloom
. In 2010, Edith Grossman was awarded the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
Translation Prize for her 2008 translation of Antonio Muñoz Molina
's A Manuscipt of Ashes.
Gabriel García Márquez
Mario Vargas Llosa
Ariel Dorfman
Mayra Montero
Álvaro Mutis
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
specializing in English versions of Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
language books. She is one of the most important translators of Latin American fiction in the past century, translating the works of Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, Mayra Montero
Mayra Montero
-Biography:Montero was born in Havana, Cuba in 1952. She is the daughter of Manuel Montero, a very successful Cuban comedic writer and actor who made his career in both Cuba and Puerto Rico, where he and his family relocated when Mayra was a young girl. Manuel, whose pen name was "Membrillo",...
, Augusto Monterroso
Augusto Monterroso
"The Dinosaur" redirects here. For the song by Was , see Walk the Dinosaur. For other uses, see Dinosaur Augusto Monterroso Bonilla was a Guatemalan writer.-Life:...
, Jaime Manrique
Jaime Manrique
-Background:Manrique was born in Barranquilla, Colombia and earned a B.A. from the University of South Florida.-Writing career:His first poetry volume won Colombia's National Poetry Award. Additionally, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to write his memoirs and has contributed to Shade , a gay,...
, Julián Ríos
Julián Ríos
Julián Ríos is a Spanish writer, most frequently classified as a postmodernist,whom Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes has called "the most inventive and creative" of Spanish-language writers...
and of Álvaro Mutis
Álvaro Mutis
Álvaro Mutis Jaramillo is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist and author of the compendium The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll.-Early life:...
.
In a speech delivered at the 2003 PEN Tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, held in New York City on November 5, 2003, she explains her method:
- "Fidelity is surely our highest aim, but a translation is not made with tracing paper. It is an act of critical interpretation. Let me insist on the obvious: Languages trail immense, individual histories behind them, and no two languages, with all their accretions of tradition and culture, ever dovetail perfectly. They can be linked by translation, as a photograph can link movement and stasis, but it is disingenuous to assume that either translation or photography, or acting for that matter, are representational in any narrow sense of the term. Fidelity is our noble purpose, but it does not have much, if anything, to do with what is called literal meaning. A translation can be faithful to tone and intention, to meaning. It can rarely be faithful to words or syntax, for these are peculiar to specific languages and are not transferable."
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Grossman now lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, did graduate work at UC Berkeley, and received a Ph.D. from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. Her translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote, published in 2003, is considered one of the finest translations of the Spanish masterpiece in the English language, praised by such author/critics as Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
and Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
. In 2010, Edith Grossman was awarded the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute is an organization in New York City founded to promote the Spanish language and the culture of Spain. It is located on 684 Park Avenue in the former Oliver D. Filley House.- History :...
Translation Prize for her 2008 translation of Antonio Muñoz Molina
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Antonio Muñoz Molina is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He currently resides in New York City, United States...
's A Manuscipt of Ashes.
Gabriel García MárquezGabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
- Love in the Time of CholeraLove in the Time of CholeraLove in the Time of Cholera is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez first published in the Spanish language during 1985. Alfred A. Knopf published the English translation during 1988...
, Knopf, 1988. - The General in His LabyrinthThe General in His LabyrinthThe General in His Labyrinth is a novel by the Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of Simón Bolívar, liberator and leader of Gran Colombia...
, Penguin, 1991. - Strange PilgrimsStrange PilgrimsStrange Pilgrims is a collection of twelve loosely-related short stories by the Nobel Prize winning Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez....
: Stories, Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. - Of Love and Other DemonsOf Love and Other DemonsOf Love and Other Demons is a novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, first published in 1994....
, Knopf, 1995. - News of a KidnappingNews of a Kidnappingthumb|1st edition News of a Kidnapping is a non-fiction book by Gabriel García Márquez...
, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. - Living to Tell the TaleLiving to Tell the TaleLiving to Tell the Tale is the first volume of the autobiography of Gabriel García Márquez....
, Jonathan Cape, 2003. - Memories of My Melancholy WhoresMemories of My Melancholy WhoresMemories of My Melancholy Whores is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez....
, Vintage, 2005.
Mario Vargas LlosaMario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
- Death in the AndesDeath in the AndesDeath in the Andes is a 1993 novel by the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa. It follows the character Lituma, from Who Killed Palomino Molero?, after being transferred to the rural town of Naccos.-Plot:...
, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996. - The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
- The Feast of the GoatThe Feast of the GoatThe Feast of the Goat is a novel by the Peruvian Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The book is set in the Dominican Republic and portrays the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, and its aftermath, from two distinct standpoints a generation apart:...
, Picador, 2001. - The Bad GirlThe Bad GirlThe Bad Girl, originally published in 2006 in Spanish as Travesuras de la niña mala, is a novel by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.Journalist Kathryn Harrison approvingly argues that the book is a rewrite of the French modernist Gustave Flaubert's classic novel Madame Bovary...
, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Ariel DorfmanAriel DorfmanVladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
- Last Waltz in Santiago and Other Poems of Exile and Disappearance, Penguin, 1988.
- In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land: New and Collected Poems from Two Languages, Duke University Press, 2002
Mayra MonteroMayra Montero-Biography:Montero was born in Havana, Cuba in 1952. She is the daughter of Manuel Montero, a very successful Cuban comedic writer and actor who made his career in both Cuba and Puerto Rico, where he and his family relocated when Mayra was a young girl. Manuel, whose pen name was "Membrillo",...
- In the Palm of Darkness, HarperCollins, 1997.
- The Messenger: A Novel, Harper Perennial, 2000.
- The Last Night I Spent With You, HarperCollins, 2000.
- The Red of His Shadow, HarperCollins, 2001.
- Dancing to "Almendra": A Novel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
- Captain of the Sleepers: A Novel, Picador, 2007.
Álvaro MutisÁlvaro MutisÁlvaro Mutis Jaramillo is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist and author of the compendium The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll.-Early life:...
- The Adventures of Maqroll: Three Novellas, HarperCollins, 1992.
- The Adventures of Maqroll: Four Novellas, HarperCollins, 1995.
- The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, NYRB Classics, 2002.
Other Works
- José Luis Llovio-Menéndez, Insider My Hidden Life as a Revolutionary in Cuba, Bantam Books, 1988.
- Augusto MonterrosoAugusto Monterroso"The Dinosaur" redirects here. For the song by Was , see Walk the Dinosaur. For other uses, see Dinosaur Augusto Monterroso Bonilla was a Guatemalan writer.-Life:...
, Complete Works & Other Stories, University of Texas Press, 1995. - Julián Rios, Loves That Bind, Knopf, 1998.
- Eliseo Alberto, Caracol Beach: A Novel, Vintage, 2001.
- Julián Rios, Monstruary, Knopf, 2001.
- Pablo Bachelet, Gustavo Cisneros: The Pioneer, Planeta, 2004.
- Carmen LaforetCarmen LaforetCarmen Laforet was a Spanish author who wrote in the period after the Spanish Civil War...
, Nada: A Novel, The Modern Library, 2007. - The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance, W.W. Norton, 2007.
- Antonio Muñoz Molina, A Manuscript of Ashes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008.
- Why Translation Matters, Yale University Press, 2010.
External links
- The Guernicamag.com Interview about "Don Quixote"
- Edith Grossman's lecture, "Translating Cervantes," delivered at the IDB Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.
- http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2255PEN audio interview with Gregory RabassaGregory RabassaGregory Rabassa is a renowned literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English who currently teaches at Queens College.-Life and career:Rabassa was born in Yonkers, New York, U.S., into a family headed by a Cuban émigré...
and Edith Grossman] - Podcast Interview with Paula Shackleton BookBuffet.com
- "Edith Grossman on Translation, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Antonio Muñoz Molina"