J. M. Cohen
Encyclopedia
J. M. Cohen (5 February 1903 – 19 July 1989) was a prolific translator (into English
) of European literature. Born in London
, he was a graduate of Cambridge University
. After working in his father's manufacturing business from 1925 until 1940, he was moved by a wartime shortage of teachers to become a schoolmaster. In addition to teaching young people, he spent the war years teaching himself Spanish and Russian, and he launched his translation career with the first English translation of poems by Boris Pasternak
, then unknown outside of the Soviet Union. On the strength of a commission from Penguin Books
for a major translation of Don Quixote, he quit his teaching job to dedicate himself full time to writing and translation in 1946. His workmanlike and accurate 1950 translation of Don Quixote has been highly praised, although some prefer the Samuel Putnam
translation.
In addition to his translations of major works of Spanish and French literature for Penguin, Cohen also edited several important anthologies of Spanish and Latin American literature, as well as many of the Penguin Classics (alongside E. V. Rieu
). He played an instrumental role in the Latin Boom of the 1960s by translating works by Jorge Luis Borges
, Octavio Paz
, and Carlos Fuentes
, and by bringing the works of Gabriel García Márquez
to the attention of his future English publisher. He also wrote a number of works of literary criticism and biography.
In its obituary, The Times
described him as "the translator of foreign prose classics for our times." The Guardian
declared that he "did perhaps more than anyone else in his generation to introduce British readers to the classics of world literature by making them available in good modern English translations."
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) of European literature. Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he was a graduate of Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. After working in his father's manufacturing business from 1925 until 1940, he was moved by a wartime shortage of teachers to become a schoolmaster. In addition to teaching young people, he spent the war years teaching himself Spanish and Russian, and he launched his translation career with the first English translation of poems by Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
, then unknown outside of the Soviet Union. On the strength of a commission from Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
for a major translation of Don Quixote, he quit his teaching job to dedicate himself full time to writing and translation in 1946. His workmanlike and accurate 1950 translation of Don Quixote has been highly praised, although some prefer the Samuel Putnam
Samuel Putnam
Samuel Putnam was an American translator and scholar of Romance languages.His most famous work is his 1949 English translation of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote...
translation.
In addition to his translations of major works of Spanish and French literature for Penguin, Cohen also edited several important anthologies of Spanish and Latin American literature, as well as many of the Penguin Classics (alongside E. V. Rieu
E. V. Rieu
Emile Victor Rieu CBE was a classicist, publisher and poet, best known for his lucid translations of Homer, as editor of Penguin Classics, and for a modern translation of the four Gospels which evolved from his role as editor of a projected Penguin translation of the Bible...
). He played an instrumental role in the Latin Boom of the 1960s by translating works by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
, and Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
, and by bringing the works of Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
to the attention of his future English publisher. He also wrote a number of works of literary criticism and biography.
In its obituary, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described him as "the translator of foreign prose classics for our times." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
declared that he "did perhaps more than anyone else in his generation to introduce British readers to the classics of world literature by making them available in good modern English translations."
Selected Translations by J.M. Cohen
- Boris PasternakBoris PasternakBoris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
, Selected Poems, London: Drummond, 1946. - Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
, Don Quixote, Penguin, 1950. - Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
, The Confessions, Penguin, 1953. - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
, The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel, Penguin, 1955. - St. Teresa of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself, Penguin, 1957.
- Michel de MontaigneMichel de MontaigneLord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne , February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592, was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism...
, Essays, Penguin, 1958. - Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain, Penguin, 1963.
- Fernando de RojasFernando de RojasFernando de Rojas was a Spanish author about whom little information is known. He possibly attended the University of Salamanca. Although his family was of Jewish ancestry, they were conversos, or Jews who had converted to Christianity under pressure from the Spanish crown...
, La Celestina or The Spanish Bawd: Being the Tragi-Comedy of Calisto and Melibea, Penguin, 1964. - Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
, The Appearance of Man, London: Collins, 1965. - Agustín de Zárate, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, Penguin, 1968.
- Christopher ColumbusChristopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus; Being His Own Log-book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Other Contemporary Historians, Penguin, 1969. - Heberto PadillaHeberto PadillaHeberto Padilla was a Cuban poet. The Padilla Affair was named after him. He was born in Puerta de Golpe, Pinar del Río, Cuba. His first book of poetry, Las rosas audaces , was published in 1948...
, Sent off the Field: A Selection from the Poetry of Heberto Padilla, London: Deutsch, 1972.
Books and Anthologies Edited by J.M. Cohen
- The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse, Penguin, 1952.
- Penguin Book of Spanish Verse, Penguin, 1956 (new editions, 1962 and 1988).
- More Comic and Curious Verse, Penguin, 1956.
- Yet More Comic and Curious Verse, Penguin, 1959.
- (with Mark J. Cohen) The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations, Penguin, 1960.
- Poetry of This Age: 1908-1965, Harper, 1966.
- Latin American Writing Today, Penguin, 1967.
- Writers in the New Cuba: An Anthology, Penguin, 1967.
- (with Mark J. Cohen), The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations, Penguin, 1971.
- (with Mark J. Cohen) The New Penguin Dictionary of Quotations, Viking, 1992.
- The Common Experience, an anthology of mystical writing
- The Rider Book of Mystical Verse, Rider & Co, 1983.
Books Written by J.M. Cohen
- Robert Browning, London: Longmans, Green, 1952.
- A History of Western Literature, Penguin, 1956.
- The Life of Ludwig Mond, London: Methuen & Co., 1956.
- Poetry of This Age (1959, revised 1966)
- Robert Graves, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1960.
- English Translators and Translations, London: Longmans, Green, 1962.
- The Baroque Lyric, London: Hutchinson, 1963.
- Jorge Luis Borges, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
- Journeys down the Amazon: Being the Extraordinary Adventures and Achievements of the Early Explorers, London: C. Knight, 1975.
Sources
- "J. M. Cohen, Gifted translator of foreign prose classics" (Obituary), The Times (London), 22 July 1989.
- "Obituary of JM Cohen: An opener of closed books" (Obituary), by M.C. and W.L.W., The Guardian (London), 20 July 1989.
- J.M. Cohen - Penguin UK Authors