William Weaver
Encyclopedia
William Fense Weaver is an English language
translator of modern Italian literature
.
and Italo Calvino
, and has translated many other Italian authors over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years. In addition to prose, he has translated Italian poetry and opera libretti
, and has worked as a critic and commentator on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
.
Born in the U.S.
state
of Virginia
and educated at Princeton University
B.A. summa cum laude in 1946, with postgraduate study at the University of Rome in 1949. Weaver was an ambulance driver in Italy during World War II
for the American Field Service, and lived primarily in Italy after the end of the war. Through his friendships with Elsa Morante
, Alberto Moravia
and others, Weaver met many of Italy's leading authors and intellectuals in Rome in the late 1940s and early 1950s; he paid tribute to them in his anthology Open City (1999).
Most recently, Weaver was a professor of literature at Bard College
in New York, and a Bard Center Fellow. He received honorary degrees from the University of Leicester
in the United Kingdom and Trinity College in Connecticut. According to translator Geoffrey Brock, Weaver was too ill to translate Umberto Eco's 2005 novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
(La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana 2004). http://www.themodernword.com/features/interview_brock.html
Non-fiction
Non-fiction
Bellonci, Maria
Berto, Giuseppe
Calasso, Roberto
Capriolo, Paola
Cassola, Carlo
De Carlo, Andrea
De Cespedes, Alba
Elkann, Alain
Fallaci, Oriana
Festa Campanile, Pasquale
Fruttero, Carlo
& Lucentini, Franco
Gadda, Carlo Emilio
La Capria, Raffaele
Lavagnino, Alessandra
Levi, Primo
Luciani, Albino
Loy, Rosetta
Malerba, Luigi
Montale, Eugenio
Morante, Elsa
Moravia, Alberto
Moretti, Ugo
Parise, Goffredo
Pasolini, Pier Paolo
Pirandello, Luigi
Rosso, Renzo
Sanguineti, Edoardo
Silone, Ignazio
Soldati, Mario
Svevo, Italo
Verdi, Giuseppe
and Arrigo Boito
Zavattini, Cesare
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...
translator of modern Italian literature
Italian literature
Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....
.
Biography
William Weaver is perhaps best known for his translations of the work of Umberto EcoUmberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
and Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, and has translated many other Italian authors over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years. In addition to prose, he has translated Italian poetry and opera libretti
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, and has worked as a critic and commentator on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
.
Born in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and educated at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
B.A. summa cum laude in 1946, with postgraduate study at the University of Rome in 1949. Weaver was an ambulance driver in Italy during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
for the American Field Service, and lived primarily in Italy after the end of the war. Through his friendships with Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante was an Italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel La storia .-Biography:...
, Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
and others, Weaver met many of Italy's leading authors and intellectuals in Rome in the late 1940s and early 1950s; he paid tribute to them in his anthology Open City (1999).
Most recently, Weaver was a professor of literature at Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
in New York, and a Bard Center Fellow. He received honorary degrees from the University of Leicester
University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
in the United Kingdom and Trinity College in Connecticut. According to translator Geoffrey Brock, Weaver was too ill to translate Umberto Eco's 2005 novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is a novel by Italian writer Umberto Eco. It was first published in Italian in 2004, and an English language translation by Geoffrey Brock was published in spring 2005...
(La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana 2004). http://www.themodernword.com/features/interview_brock.html
Italo Calvino
Fiction- CosmicomicsCosmicomicsCosmicomics is a book of short stories by Italo Calvino first published in Italian in 1965 and in English in 1968. Each story takes a scientific "fact" , and builds an imaginative story around it...
(1965). (Le cosmicomiche, 1965.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-622600-6). - T zeroT zerot zero is a 1967 collection of short stories by Italian author Italo Calvino. The title story is based on a particularly uncertain moment in the life of a lion hunter...
(1969). (Ti con zero, 1967.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-692400-5). - The Watcher and Other Stories (1971). (La giornata d'uno scrutatore & La nuvola di smog trans. by W.W.; La formica Argentina trans. by Archibald Colquhoun.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-694952-0).
- Invisible CitiesInvisible CitiesInvisible Cities is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore.-Description:The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo...
(1974). (Le città invisibili, 1972.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-645380-0). - The Castle of Crossed DestiniesThe Castle of Crossed DestiniesThe Castle of Crossed Destinies is a 1973 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. Its narrative details a meeting among travelers who are inexplicably unable to speak after traveling through a forest. The characters in the novel recount their tales via Tarot cards, which are reconstructed by...
(1977). (Il castello dei destini incrociati, 1973.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-615455-2). - If On a Winter's Night a TravelerIf on a winter's night a travelerIf on a winter's night a traveler is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The narrative is about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter's night a traveler. Every odd-numbered chapter is in the second person, and tells the reader what he is doing in preparation for...
(1981). (Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore, 1979.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-643961-1). - Marcovaldo, or, The Seasons in the City (1983). (Marcovaldo, ovvero, Le stagioni in città, 1963.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-657204-4).
- Difficult LovesDifficult LovesDifficult Loves is the fourth studio album released by Australian rock band Weddings Parties Anything.The album was named after a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story...
(1984). (Gli amori difficili, 1949/1958.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-626055-7). (W.W. was one of three translators of this collection.) - Mr. PalomarMr. PalomarMr. Palomar is a 1983 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. Its original Italian title is Palomar. In an interview with Gregory Lucente, Calvino stated that he began writing Mr. Palomar in 1975, making it a predecessor to earlier published works such as If on a winter's night a traveler. Mr...
(1985). (Palomar, 1983.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-662780-9). - Prima che tu dica 'Pronto' (1985). (Prima che tu dica 'Pronto' , 1985.)
- Under the Jaguar SunUnder the Jaguar SunUnder the Jaguar Sun is a collection of short stories by Italo Calvino. The stories were to have been in a book entitled I cinque sensi . Calvino died before writing the stories dedicated to vision and touch. In the Italian edition the stories are ordered as follows: Il nome, il naso; Sotto il...
(1988). (Sotto il sole giaguaro, 1986.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-692794-2).
Non-fiction
- The Uses of Literature (1982). (Una pietra sopra, 1980.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-693250-4).
Umberto Eco
Fiction- The Name of the RoseThe Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
(1983). (Il nome della rosa, 1980.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-600131-4). - Foucault's PendulumFoucault's PendulumFoucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later....
(1989). (Il pendolo di Foucault, 1988.) Ballantine (ISBN 0-345-36875-4). - The Bomb and the General (1989). (La bomba e il generale, 1966, 1988.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-209700-7).
- The Three Astronauts (1989). (I tre cosmonauti, 1966, 1988.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-286383-4).
- The Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day Before is a 1994 novel by Umberto Eco.It is the story of a 17th century Italian nobleman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck during a fierce storm. He finds himself washed up on an abandoned ship in a harbour through which, he convinces himself, runs the International...
(1995). (L'isola del giorno prima, 1994.) Penguin (ISBN 0-14-025919-8). - BaudolinoBaudolinoBaudolino is a 2000 novel by Umberto Eco about the adventures of a young man named Baudolino in the known and mythical Christian world of the 12th century.Baudolino was translated into English in 2001 by William Weaver...
(2002). (Baudolino, 2000.) Harvest/HBJ (ISBN 0-15-602906-5).
Non-fiction
- Travels in Hyperreality (1986). (based in part on Sette anni di desiderio: chronache 1977 - 1983, 1983.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-691321-6).
- Serendipities: Language & Lunacy (1989). Harvest Books (ISBN 0-15-600751-7).
- "A Rose by Any Other Name", in the Guardian Weekly, January 16, 1994 http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_guardian94.html
- Postscript to The Name of the Rose (1995). Harcourt (ISBN 1-56849-675-3).
- Misreadings (1993). (Diario minimo, 1963, 1975.) Harcourt, (ISBN 0-15-660752-2).
- How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays (1994). (Il secondo diario minimo, 1992.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-600125-X).
- Apocalypse Postponed (1994). Indiana University Press (ISBN 0-85170-446-8). (W.W. translated only one of the selections in this collection.)
Others
Bassani, GiorgioGiorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
- The Heron (1970). (L'airone, 1968.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-7043-0186-5).
- Five Stories of Ferrara (1971). (Cinque storie ferraresi, 1956.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-131400-4).
- Behind the Door (1972). (Dietro la porta, 1964.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-111697-0).
- The Smell of Hay (1975). (L'odore del fieno, 1972.) Quartet Books (ISBN 0-7043-0221-7).
- The Garden of the Finzi-ContinisThe Garden of the Finzi-ContinisThe Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a historical novel by Giorgio Bassani, published in 1962. It chronicles the relationships between the narrator and the children of the Finzi-Contini family from the rise of Benito Mussolini until the start of World War II.-Background:The Garden of the...
(1977). (Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini, 1962.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-634570-6).
Bellonci, Maria
Maria Bellonci
Maria Villavecchia Bellonci was an Italian writer known especially for her biography of Lucrezia Borgia. She and Guido Alberti set up the Strega Prize in 1947....
- Private Renaissance: A Novel (1989). (Rinascimento privato, 1985). William Morrow (ISBN 0-688-08188-6).
Berto, Giuseppe
Giuseppe Berto
Giuseppe Berto was an Italian writer. He is mostly known for his novels, among which Il cielo è rosso and Il male oscuro; he also wrote for cinema.-Selected works:...
- Incubus (1966). (Il male oscuro, 1964.) Knopf.
- Antonio in Love (1968). (La cosa buffa, 1966.) Knopf.
Calasso, Roberto
Roberto Calasso
Roberto Calasso is an Italian writer and publisher.-Biography:Calasso was born in 1941, into a family of the Tuscan upper class, well connected with some of the great Italian intellectuals of their time. His maternal grandfather Ernesto Codignola was a professor of philosophy at Florence University...
- The Ruin of Kasch (1994). (La rovina di Kasch, 1983.) Belknap Press (ISBN 0-674-78029-9).
Capriolo, Paola
- The Helsmsman (1991). (Il nocchiero, 1989.) HarperCollins (ISBN 0-00-223649-4).
Cassola, Carlo
Carlo Cassola
Carlo Cassola was an important Italian novelist and essayist. His novel La Ragazza di Bube , which received the Strega Prize, was adapted into a film by Luigi Comencini in 1963....
- An Arid Heart (1964). (Un cuore arido, 1961.) Pantheon.
De Carlo, Andrea
Andrea De Carlo
Andrea De Carlo is a popular Italian writer.-Biography:Andrea De Carlo grew up in Milan. His "love-hatred" relationship with the capital of Lombardy would come to be detailed in his novels...
- Macno (1987). (Macno, 1984.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-154899-4).
- Yucatan (1990). (Yucatan, 1986.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-199895-7).
De Cespedes, Alba
- Remorse (1967). (Il rimorso, 1963.) Doubleday.
Elkann, Alain
Alain Elkann
Alain Elkann is an Italian novelist, intellectual, and journalist. Currently, Elkann is the conductor of cultural programs on Italian television. A recurring theme in his books is the history of the Jews in Italy, their centrality to Italian history, and the relation between the Jewish faith and...
- Piazza Carignano (1986). (Piazza Carignano, 1985.) Atlantic Monthly Press (ISBN 0-87113-109-9).
- Misguided Lives: A Novel (1989). (Montagne russe, 1988). Atlantic Monthly Press (ISBN 0-87113-295-8).
Fallaci, Oriana
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci was an Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer. A former partisan during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career...
- A ManA ManA Man is a novel written by Oriana Fallaci chronicling her relationship with the attempted assassin of Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.-Plot summary:...
(1980). (Un uomo, 1979.) Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0-671-25241-0). - Inshallah (1992). (Insciallah, 1990.) Talese (ISBN 0-385-41987-2).
Festa Campanile, Pasquale
Pasquale Festa Campanile
Pasquale Festa Campanile was an Italian screenwriter, film director and novellist. He was born at Melfi and died in Rome.- Director :* Un tentativo sentimentale * La nonna Sabella...
- For Love, Only for Love (1989). (Per Amore, Solo per Amore, 1983.) Ballantine (ISBN 0-345-36336-1).
Fruttero, Carlo
Carlo Fruttero
Carlo Fruttero is an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. He is mostly known for his joint work with Franco Lucentini, especially as authors of crime novels...
& Lucentini, Franco
Franco Lucentini
Franco Lucentini was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. His novel The Sunday Woman, which was also made into a film, 1976, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jacqueline Bisset.- Biography :...
- The Sunday Woman (1973). (La donna della domenica, 1972.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-186720-8).
Gadda, Carlo Emilio
Carlo Emilio Gadda
Carlo Emilio Gadda was an Italian writer and poet. He belongs to the tradition of the language innovators, writers that played with the somewhat stiff standard pre-war Italian language, and added elements of dialects, technical jargon and wordplay.-Biography:Gadda was a practising engineer from...
- That Awful Mess on Via Merulana: A Novel (1965). (Quer pasticciaccio brutta de via Merulana, 1957.) George Braziller (ISBN 0-8076-1093-3).
- "The fire in via Keplero" (L'incendio in via Keplero). In Art and Literature 1 (March 1964), pp. 18–30.
- Acquainted with Grief (1969). (La cognizione del dolore, 1963.) Peter Owen (ISBN 0-8076-1115-8).
La Capria, Raffaele
Raffaele La Capria
Raffaele La Capria is an Italian writer, known especially for the three novels which were collected as Tre romanzi di una giornata.-Biography:...
- A Day of Impatience (1954). (Un giorno d'impazienza, 1952.) Farrar, Straus, Young. (This was W.W.'s first full-length literary translation, per Healey's Bibliography.)
Lavagnino, Alessandra
- The Lizards (1972). (I lucertoloni, 1969.) Harper & Row (ISBN 0-06-012537-3).
Levi, Primo
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
- The Monkey's Wrench (1986/1995). (La chiave a stella, 1978.) Penguin Classics (ISBN 0-14-018892-4).
- If Not Now, When? (1995). (Se non ora, quando? 1982.) Penguin Classics (ISBN 0-14-018893-2).
Luciani, Albino
- Illustrissimi: Letters from Pope John Paul I (1978) Little, Brown, & Co. (ISBN 0-316-53530-3).
Loy, Rosetta
- The Dust Roads of Monferrato (1990). (Le strade di polvere, 1987.) Knopf (ISBN 0-394-58849-5).
Malerba, Luigi
Luigi Malerba
Luigi Malerba was an Italian author who wrote short stories , historical novels, and screenplays, and who co-founded the Gruppo 63, based on Marxism and Structuralism...
- The Serpent (1968). (Il serpente, 1965.) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- What is this buzzing, do you hear it too? (1969). (Salto mortale, 1968.) Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Montale, Eugenio
Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.- Early years :...
- Butterfly of Dinard (1966). (La farfalla di Dinard, 1956/1960.) In Art and Literature 9 (Summer 1966), pp. 54–60.
- "Italo Svevo, on the centenary of his birth." In Art and Literature 12 (Spring 1967), pp. 9–31.
Morante, Elsa
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante was an Italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel La storia .-Biography:...
- History: A Novel (1977). (La storia, 1974.) Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-58642-004-6).
- Aracoeli: A Novel (1984). (Aracoeli 1982.) Random House (ISBN 0-394-53518-9).
Moravia, Alberto
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
- 1934 : A Novel (1983). (1934, 1982). Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN 0-374-52652-4).
- Life of Moravia (2000). (Vita di Moravia, 1990.) Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-883642-50-7).
- "Two Germans" (2002). (Due tedeschi, 1945.) In Conjunctions:38, Rejoicing Revoicing. Bard College (ISBN 0-941964-54-X).
- Boredom (2004). (Noia, 1960.) New York Review Books Classics (ISBN 1-59017-121-7). (Introduction by W.W.; trans. by Angus Davidson.)
Moretti, Ugo
- Artists in Rome (1958). (Gente al Babuino, 1955.) Macmillan.
Parise, Goffredo
Goffredo Parise
Goffredo Parise was an Italian writer and journalist. He won the Viareggio Prize in 1965 and the Strega Prize in 1982. He was an atheist.-References:...
- The Boss (1966). (Il padrone, 1965.) Knopf.
Pasolini, Pier Paolo
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
- A Violent Life, (1968). (Una vita violenta, 1959.) Jonathan Cape (ISBN 1-85754-284-3).
Pirandello, Luigi
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
- One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (1990). (Uno, nessuno, e centomila, 1926.) Marsilio (ISBN 0-941419-74-6).
- The Late Mattia Pascal (1964). (Il Fu Mattia Pascal, 1904.) New York Review Books Classics (ISBN 1-59017-115-2).
Rosso, Renzo
- The Hard Thorn (1966). (La dura spina, 1963.) Alan Ross.
Sanguineti, Edoardo
Edoardo Sanguineti
Edoardo Sanguineti was an Italian writer who was born in Genoa.-Biography:During the 1960s he was a leader of the neo avant-garde Gruppo 63 movement, founded in 1963 at Solunto....
- Extract from Capriccio italiano. In Art and Literature 2 (Summer 1964), pp. 88–97.
Silone, Ignazio
Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...
- The School for Dictators (1963). (La scuola dei dittatori, 1938/1962.) Atheneum.
- The Story of a Humble Christian (1970). (L'avventura d'un povero cristiano, 1968.) Harper & Row (ISBN 0-06-013873-4).
Soldati, Mario
Mario Soldati
Mario Soldati was an Italian writer and film director.-Biography:Soldati studied Humanities in his native city, Turin, and History of Art in Rome. He started publishing novels in 1929 although his fame came with America primo amore, published in 1935, a diary about the time he spent teaching at...
- The Emerald: A Novel (1977). (Lo smeraldo, 1974.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-128530-6).
- The American Bride (1979). (La sposa americana, 1977.) Hodder & Stoughton (ISBN 0-340-24148-9 ).
Svevo, Italo
Italo Svevo
Aron Ettore Schmitz , better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian writer and businessman, author of novels, plays, and short stories.- Biography :...
- Zeno's Conscience (2001). (La Coscienza di Zeno,1923.) Vintage (ISBN 0-375-72776-0).
Verdi, Giuseppe
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
and Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...
- The Verdi-Boito Correspondence (1994). (Carteggio Verdi/Boito, 1978.) Marcello Conati and Mario Medici, eds. U. of Chicago Press (ISBN 0-226-85304-7). (With commentary by W.W.)
Zavattini, Cesare
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.-Brief biography:...
- Zavattini: Sequences from a Cinematic Life (1970). (Straparole, 1967.) Prentice-Hall (ISBN 0-13-983916-X).
As Editor
- Open City : Seven Writers in Postwar Rome : Ignazio Silone, Giorgio Bassani, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Carlo Levi, Carlo Emili (1999). Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-883642-82-5).
Monographs
- A Tent In This World (novella, 1950/1999). McPherson & Company (ISBN 0-929701-58-5). Published in America as
- The Golden Century of Italian opera from Rossini to Puccini (1980). Thames and Hudson (ISBN 0-500-01240-7).
- Puccini: The Man and His Music (1977). E. P. Dutton, Metropolitan Opera Guild composer series.
- The Puccini Companion : Essays on Puccini's Life and Music (1994). William Weaver and Simonetta Puccini, eds. W.W. Norton (ISBN 0-393-32052-9)
- Seven Puccini Librettos in the Original Italian (1981). W.W. Norton (ISBN 0-393-00930-0).
- Seven Verdi Librettos: With the Original Italian (1977). W.W. Norton (ISBN 0-393-00852-5).
- The Verdi Companion (1979). W.W. Norton (ISBN 0-393-30443-4).
- Verdi, a Documentary Study (1977). Thames and Hudson. (ISBN 0-500-01184-2).
Articles and Contributions
- "Pendulum Diary." Southwest ReviewSouthwest ReviewThe Southwest Review is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States of America . The current editor-in-chief is Willard Spiegelman.The journal was formerly known as the...
75(2), 150-178 (1990). (W.W.'s experience translating Foucault's Pendulum.) - "The Process of Translation" In Biguenet, John and Rainer Schulte. The Craft of Translation. Ed. John Biguenet and Rainer Schulte. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989. (ISBN 0226048683)
- Rome and a Villa (2000). Eleanor ClarkEleanor ClarkEleanor Clark was an American writer. Clark was born in Los Angeles. She attended Vassar College in the 1930s and was involved with the literary magazine Con Spirito there, along with Elizabeth Bishop, Mary McCarthy, and her sister Eunice Clark...
. Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-883642-51-5). (W.W. wrote an introduction for this travelogue/memoir by Clark, whom he knew in Rome in the late 1940s.)
Interviews
- "William Weaver, The Art of Translation No. 3." The Paris Review, Issue 161, Spring 2002.
- "An Interview with William Weaver", by Martha King. Translation Review 14, 1984. pp. 4–9.
Awards
- National Book AwardNational Book AwardThe National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for Translation- 1969, for Calvino's Cosmicomics
- PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation PrizePEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation PrizeThe PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize is an annual award given to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been presented annually by PEN American Center and the Book of the Month Club since 1963....
- 1984, for Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
- 1990, for Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum
- The John Florio Prize for Italian Translations from The Society of Authors
- 1969, for Pier Pasolini's A Violent Life
- 1971, for Giorgio Bassani's The Heron
- 1971, for Italo Calvino's Time and the Hunter
- 1992, for Rosetta Loy's The Dust Roads of Monferrato
- The Lewis Galantiere Prize from the American Translators AssociationAmerican Translators AssociationThe American Translators Association was founded in 1959 and is now the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States with more than 10,000 members in 90 countries....
- Member, The American Academy of Arts and LettersThe American Academy of Arts and LettersThe American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member honor society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Located in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in New York, it shares Audubon Terrace, its Beaux Arts campus on...
Quotes
- "Calvino was not a writer of hits; he was a writer of classics." — On the fact that Calvino's English translations have never been best-sellers, but have instead steady, consistent sales year after year. http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/calweaver.html
- "Translating Calvino is an aural exercise as well as a verbal one. It is not a process of turning this Italian noun into that English one, but rather of pursuing a cadence, a rhythm—sometimes regular, sometimes wilfully jagged—and trying to catch it, while, like a Wagner villain, it may squirm and change shape in your hands." http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/calweaver.html
- "Some of the hardest things to translate into English from Italian are not great big words, such as you find in Eco, but perfectly simple things, 'buon giorno' for instance. How to translate that? We don't say 'good day,' except in Australia. It has to be translated 'good morning' or 'good evening' or 'good afternoon' or 'hello.' You have to know not only the time of day the scene is taking place, but also in which part of Italy it's taking place, because in some places they start saying 'buona sera' ('good evening') at 1:00 P.M. The minute they get up from the luncheon table it's evening for them. So someone could say 'buona sera,' but you can't translate it as 'good evening' because the scene is taking place at 3:00 P.M. You need to know the language but, even more, the life of the country." — From the Paris Review interview, 2002.
Sources
- Robin Healey's monumental Twentieth-Century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography (ISBN 0-8020-0800-3) was extremely helpful in the preparation of the bibliography portion of this entry.
- Porto Ludovica from The Modern Word, supplied additional details on Eco translations.
- Bound to Please, by Michael Dirda p 31-33, W.W. Norton, 2005. A chapter discussing William Weaver's translation of The Name of the Rose, by Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
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