Etienne and Terrill: Publishers in the US have the idea
(based on their experience) that translations don't sell.
There are a few exceptions, of course. Some foreign
children's books and sex books do sell, as do certain
classics, but normally people in the US have little idea of
what's going on elsewhere. I read an article in the newspaper
complaining that they had given the Nobel prize to Jose
Saramago, "a guy nobody's ever heard of". I don't think a
European reader would say the same if Roth or Updike were to
receive the prize. A writer, even a newspaper reporter,
certainly wouldn't say it.
To judge by the remainder bins, even top writers who have won
Novel prizes don't sell in the US. Even Gþ´¥² Grass
doesn't sell (and he was translated by the great Ralph
Manheim, a guarantee of quality and creativity in
translation). I was thinking of this as I browsed
Grass's
_The Flounder_, whose Manheim translation is a work of art in
itself. Mark, since you recommended Selby to me, I will
recommend this book to you, as retribution, as my
thanks.
Best,
MrT
=====
"The skill of man is unequal to the formation of a new man
from old materials, but the battered tenement may, with care,
be long sustained by props" -- From Becklard's
Physiology.
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 29 Jul 2002 EDT