__NOTOC__ Allen Mandelbaum (May 4, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was a

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

professor of literature and the humanities, poet, and translator from Classical Greek, Latin and Italian. His translations of classic works gained him numerous awards in Italy and the United States.

Early life and education

He was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

in 1926 and at age 13 moved with his family to Manhattan. After beginning his higher education at Yeshiva University, he studied English and comparative literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, receiving his master's degree in 1946 and his doctorate in 1951. He then spent 15 years in Italy."Allen Mandelbaum, Translator of ''Divine Comedy'', Dies at 85"
William Grimes. ''The New York Times'', November 5, 2011.

Academic career

He taught English and comparative literature at the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

from 1966 to 1986 and served as executive officer of the Ph.D. Program in English from 1972 to 1980.Graduate Center Community News , February 2012
/ref> In 1989 he was named the W. R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University.

Translations

His translation of the ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

'' appeared between 1980 and 1984; they were published by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

and supported by the notable Dante scholar

Irma Brandeis Irma Brandeis (1905–1990) was an American scholar of Dante Alighieri. Her work ''The Ladder of Vision'' was acclaimed as a breakthrough in Dantean studies upon its publication in the 1960s. Brandeis graduated from Barnard College in 1926. In he ...

. He subsequently acted as general editor of the ''California Lectura Dantis'', a collection of essays on the ''Comedy''; two volumes, on the ''Inferno'' and ''Purgatorio'', have been published. Mandelbaum received the 1973

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in category Translation for

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

''."National Book Awards – 1973"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
There was a "Translation" award from 1967 to 1983. In 2000, Mandelbaum traveled to

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, for the 735th anniversary of Dante's birth, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Florence for his translation of the ''Divine Comedy''. In 2003, he was awarded The Presidential Prize for Translation from the President of Italy, and received Italy's highest award, the Presidential Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.

Awards

* 1973:

for translation * 2000: City of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Gold Medal of Honor * 2003: Italian Presidential Prize for Translation * 2003: Italian Presidential Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity * Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy * Premio Mondello * Premio Leonardo * Premio Biella * Premio Lerici-Pea * Premio Montale at the Montale Centenary in Rome * Circe-Sabaudia Award

Death and legacy

He died in

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

in 2011.

Published works

Verse

*''Journeyman'' *''Leaves of Absence'' *''Chelmaxioms: the maxims, axioms, maxioms of Chelm'' (1977) *''A Lied of Letterpress for Moser and McGrath'' (1980) *''The Savantasse of Montparnasse''

Translations

Classics

* * *''Ovid's Metamorphoses'' * * *

Contemporary Italian poetry

*''The Selected Writings of Salvatore Quasimodo'' (1960) *

Edited work

* *

References

External links

Irma Brandeis' defense
of Mandelbaum's translation of the ''Divine Comedy''

at Wake Forest University
World of Dante
multimedia site which includes Italian text and Mandelbaum's translation of the Divine Comedy, a gallery, music, maps, timeline and searchable database {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandelbaum, Allen 1926 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American Jews National Book Award winners Writers from Albany, New York Wake Forest University faculty American male poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American translators 20th-century American male writers Translators of Homer Translators of Virgil Translators of Dante Alighieri Yeshiva University alumni 21st-century American Jews