John Martin Crawford (October 18, 1845 – 1916) was an American physician and scholar who translated the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

epic ''

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and r ...

'' into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

based on a previous German translation by

Franz Anton Schiefner Franz Anton Schiefner (June 18, 1817 – November 16, 1879) was a Baltic German linguist and tibetologist. Schiefner was born to a German-speaking family in Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, then part of Russian Empire. His father was a merchant who had e ...

published in 1852, to be published for the first time in 1888.

Biography

He was born in Herrick, Pennsylvania and taught public school for three years prior to attending college. He enrolled in

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

in 1867 and graduated in 1871. It was there he was inspired by Professor Thomas Conrad Porter to translate the ''

''. In 1872 Crawford returned to teaching Math and Latin at the Chickering Institute in Ohio. During this time he studied Medicine, receiving three degrees from schools in Cincinnati. In June 1889, Crawford was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as consul-general of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. He also translated the five volume series "Industries of Russia" published in 1893 for

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Published works

* **
e-text via ''www.gutenberg.org''
**
e-text via ''www.gutenberg.org''
* ** ** ** ** **

References

External links

* * * * 1845 births 1916 deaths German–English translators 19th-century American translators {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub