Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th century, and likened translation to acting, the role being "to impersonate his author".Bruce Lamber
"Ralph Manheim, 85, Translator Of Major Works to English, Dies"
''New York Times'', September 28, 1992. Retrieved on March 25, 2009.

Early life

Manheim was born in New York City. He lived for a year in Germany and Austria as an adolescent, graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

at the age of 19,John Calde
"Obituary: Ralph Manheim"
''The Independent'', September 28, 1992 and spent time in Munich and Vienna (studying at the universities) before

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

’s rise to power. He also undertook post-graduate study at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and Columbia universities.

Career

His career as a translator began with Hitler's ''

Mein Kampf (; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germ ...

'', commissioned by

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and published in 1943. Manheim endeavored to give an exact English equivalent of Hitler's highly individual, often awkward style, including his grammatical errors. Manheim translated the works of

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

(in collaboration with

John Willett John William Mills Willett, MBE (24 June 1917 – 20 August 2002) was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English. Early life Willett was born in Hampstead and was educated ...

), Louis-Ferdinand Céline,

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Da ...

, Peter Handke, philosopher

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', ''Steppenwolf (novel), Steppenwolf'', ''Siddhartha (novel), Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', ...

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

, and many others. His translation of Henry Corbin's work ''Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi'' could be considered a major contribution towards the understanding of

Ibn Arabi Ibn ʿArabī ( ar, ابن عربي, ; full name: , ; 1165–1240), nicknamed al-Qushayrī (, ) and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn (, , 'Sultan of the Knowers'), was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influenti ...

's and

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

philosophy in the English-speaking world. In 1961, he rendered transcripts of the trial in Jerusalem of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

E.T.A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in E ...

's "

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (german: Nussknacker und Mausekönig) is a story written in 1816 by Prussian author E. T. A. Hoffmann, in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating ...

". It was published with illustrations by

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...

, in conjunction with the release of the 1986 film '' Nutcracker: The Motion Picture''. Lovers of children's books also admire his agile translation of

Michael Ende Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction. He is known for his epic fantasy ''The Neverending Story'' (with its 1980s film adaptation and a 1995 animated television ...

's '' The Neverending Story.''

Later life and death

Manheim moved to Paris in 1950 and lived there until 1985, when he moved with his fourth wife to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England. He died in 1992, at age 85, from complications associated with

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

Selected translations

* ''The History of the Maghrib: an Interpretive Essay'' by

Abdallah Laroui Abdallah Laroui ( ar, عبدالله العروي; born 7 November 1933) is a Moroccan philosopher, historian, and novelist. Besides some works in French, his philosophical project has been written mostly in Arabic. He is among the most read and ...

* ''

'' by Adolf Hitler * ''

Journey to the End of the Night ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (french: Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in the World War I, colonial Africa, the Un ...

'' by Louis-Ferdinand Celine * ''

Castle to Castle ''Castle to Castle'' is the English title of the 1957 novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, titled in French ''D'un château l'autre''. The book features Céline's experiences in exile with the Vichy French government at Sigmaringen, Germany, towards ...

'' by Louis-Ferdinand Celine * ''

Death on the Installment Plan ''Death on Credit'' (french: link=no, Mort à crédit, US translation: ''Death on the Installment Plan'') is a novel by author Louis-Ferdinand Céline, published in 1936. The most common, and generally most respected English translation is Ralph ...

'' by Louis-Ferdinand Celine * '' The Tin Drum'' by Gunter Grass * '' Cat and Mouse'' by Gunter Grass * '' The Rat'' by Gunter Grass * ''Grimm's Tales for Young and Old - The Complete Stories'' * The Neverending Story by Michael Ende * ''

'' by E.T.A. Hoffmann * ''Efraim's Book'' by

Alfred Andersch Alfred Hellmuth Andersch (; 4 February 1914 – 21 February 1980) was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Mar ...

* ''

The Good Person of Szechwan ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' (german: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, first translated less literally as ''The Good Man of Setzuan'') is a play written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau ...

'' by Bertolt Brecht *

Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...

by Bertolt Brecht * ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, ''The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with music ...

'' by Bertolt Brecht and

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

* '' The Freud/Jung Letters'' *''

Knulp {{more footnotes, date=July 2022 Knulp (subtitled ''Three Stories from Knulp's Life'') is a short story by Hermann Hesse, published in 1915 by S. Fischer Verlag . The three stories about a vagrant that Hesse wrote between 1907 and 1914 are among hi ...

'' by

*''Crisis: Pages From a Diary'' by Hermann Hesse * ''Reflections'' by Hermann Hesse * ''From Lenin to Stalin'' by Victor Serge * ''

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams ''A Sorrow Beyond Dreams'' (german: Wunschloses Unglück) is a 1972 semi-autobiographical novella by the Austrian writer Peter Handke. It describes the life of Handke's mother Maria, who committed suicide on 19th November 1971. Reception Thomas Cu ...

'' by Peter Handke * ''The Guiltless'' by

Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and ''The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...

* ''The Left-Handed Woman'' by Peter Handke

Awards and honors

Manheim received the

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been pr ...

in 1964. He received the 1970

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 the Translation category for the first U.S. edition of Céline's ''

''."National Book Awards – 1970"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
There was a "Translation" award from 1967 to 1983. He was awarded a 1983 MacArthur Fellowship in Literary Studies. He won the

PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, named in honor of U.S. translator Ralph Manheim, is a literary award given every three years by PEN America (the U.S. chapter of International PEN) to a translator "whose career has demonstrated a comm ...

, a major lifetime achievement award in the field of translation, in 1988. Manheim's 1961 translation of Günter Grass's ''Die Blechtrommel'' ('' The Tin Drum'') was elected to fourth place among outstanding translations of the previous half century by the

Translators Association The Translators Association (TA) is an association representing literary translators in the United Kingdom. The Translators Association is affiliated with the International Federation of Translators (FIT). History The Translators Association (TA) ...

of the Society of Authors on the occasion of their 50th anniversary in 2008.

Early life

Career

Later life and death

Selected translations

Awards and honors

References

See also