The Man Between
Michael Henry Heim and a Life in Translation
Published on 23. October 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
318 pages
978-1-940953-00-7 (ISBN)
Description
An inside look at Michael Henry Heim—one of the most prolific and culturally important translators ever.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester, NY
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
474 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-940953-00-7 (9781940953007)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Michael Henry Heim | Esther Allen | Sean Cotter
The Man Between
Michael Henry Heim and a Life in Translation
E-Book
09/2014
Open Letter
€9.49
Available for download
Persons
Esther Allen translates from Spanish and French and has worked to promote a culture of translation in the English-speaking world, most notably by directing the PEN Translation Fund from 2003 to 2010 and helping launch the PEN World Voices Festival.
Sean Cotter teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and translates Romanian poetry and fiction, including Nichita Stanescu's Wheel with a Single Spoke for which he received the 2013 Best Translated Book Award.
Russell Scott Valentino is the current president of the American Literary Translators Association. He is also a professor at Indiana University, a translator, and the founder of Autumn Hill Books. He previously ran the Iowa Review.
Content
Tentative Table of Contents
Part I: The Life:
Excerpt (about 21,000 words) from Michael Henry Heim's interview/autobiography, Un Babel fericit (Iasi, Romania: Editura Polirom, 1999). Translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter.
The autobiographical pages cover many topics, including his family history, early interests in photography and piano, his first trips to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, his language study, and his meetings with famous authors. He was in Prague for the 1968 Soviet invasion, interpreting between Czechs and the Soviet soldiers -this section is the most dramatic. In addition to describing some of his work on particular authors, he also comments on his approach to literary translation, teaching translation, publishing translations in the United States, the lack of professional status for American translators, and translating women writers.
Part II: Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Excerpts from the correspondence between Heim and Milan Kundera regarding the English translation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (Correspondence held in the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana. To be translated from the Czech.)
Andrei Codrescu: two essays and a poem
Dubravka Ugresic on Heim, translated from the Serbo-Croatian.
Breon Mitchell's memorial lecture at UCLA
A close reading of Heim's translations of Hrabal and Kundera
Part III: In the University
Rosanna Warren's reminiscence
Alex Zucker
Maureen Freely on Heim's translation teaching techniques
Part IV: The Activist
Andrzej W. Tymowski on the Social Science Translation Project
Esther Allen on the PEN Translation Fund
Catherine Porter on Heim and the Modern Language Association
Part V: The Teacher
Russell Valentino on Heim in the classroom.
A brief anthology of techniques Heim uses to teach translation. Heim is renowned for innovative techniques such as giving his students a paragraph of a French translation of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, without telling them what it is. He then asks them to imagine the characters and scene depicted in it, and translate the paragraph into English. Once each student has produced their own English version, Heim produces the original English paragraph from Babbitt.
Part I: The Life:
Excerpt (about 21,000 words) from Michael Henry Heim's interview/autobiography, Un Babel fericit (Iasi, Romania: Editura Polirom, 1999). Translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter.
The autobiographical pages cover many topics, including his family history, early interests in photography and piano, his first trips to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, his language study, and his meetings with famous authors. He was in Prague for the 1968 Soviet invasion, interpreting between Czechs and the Soviet soldiers -this section is the most dramatic. In addition to describing some of his work on particular authors, he also comments on his approach to literary translation, teaching translation, publishing translations in the United States, the lack of professional status for American translators, and translating women writers.
Part II: Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Excerpts from the correspondence between Heim and Milan Kundera regarding the English translation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (Correspondence held in the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana. To be translated from the Czech.)
Andrei Codrescu: two essays and a poem
Dubravka Ugresic on Heim, translated from the Serbo-Croatian.
Breon Mitchell's memorial lecture at UCLA
A close reading of Heim's translations of Hrabal and Kundera
Part III: In the University
Rosanna Warren's reminiscence
Alex Zucker
Maureen Freely on Heim's translation teaching techniques
Part IV: The Activist
Andrzej W. Tymowski on the Social Science Translation Project
Esther Allen on the PEN Translation Fund
Catherine Porter on Heim and the Modern Language Association
Part V: The Teacher
Russell Valentino on Heim in the classroom.
A brief anthology of techniques Heim uses to teach translation. Heim is renowned for innovative techniques such as giving his students a paragraph of a French translation of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, without telling them what it is. He then asks them to imagine the characters and scene depicted in it, and translate the paragraph into English. Once each student has produced their own English version, Heim produces the original English paragraph from Babbitt.