Margaret Dows Herter Norton Crena de longh (née Herter; 1894–1985), known as Mary D. Herter Norton when she co-founded
W. W. Norton & Company with her first husband,
William Warder Norton
William Warder Norton (September 17, 1891 – November 7, 1945) was a publisher and co-founder of W. W. Norton & Company. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, moved to New York City and started an import-export business, met and married Margaret Do ...
, was an American
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
,
violinist
The following lists of violinists are available:
* List of classical violinists, notable violinists from the baroque era onwards
* List of contemporary classical violinists, notable contemporary classical violinists
* List of violinist/compose ...
, and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
. She was known as M. D. Herter Norton for her work as a violinist and translator.
Under the name M. D. Herter Norton, she translated from German about a dozen volumes of the poetry of
Rainer Maria Rilke.
Norton is noted for her dedication to giving "the closest idiomatic parallel" in her translation of Rilke poems. Among the translators working in her time, she was on the extreme end of being faithful to the "image, symbol, and elements of language" to the loss of the "technical elements of form" that would make a text a "living poems". Instead she offers the reader a literary aid to understand Rilke's words that accompany her line by line translation.
Her second husband, Daniel Crena de longh, was an Executive Director and treasurer of the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
.
References
1894 births
1985 deaths
20th-century American translators
American violinists
American women violinists
American publishers (people)
20th-century American women writers
20th-century violinists
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