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Letter from Kornei Chukovskii to Mirra Ginsburg, two pages and envelope

In his letter to Mirra Ginsburg sent from Peredelkino and dated September 12, 1965, Kornei Chukovskii writes: “My dear friend, I know your name quite well. I have read in your translations Taibele and her Demon, Big and Little, The Fast Gimpel and would not hesitate to rank you as I rank such masters of translation as my beloved Saul Bellow, the translator of Gimpel the Fool. Of course, I understand how excruciating it is to translate Isaac Bashevis Singer but in your translation I can sense an unattainable original. I haven’t finished reading your translation yet but I really liked it. There is not a gram of hack-work, as often happen with American translators (Guerney, Babette Deutsch and others). You are not a craftsman, you are an artist.”

Chukovskiĭ, K. I. (Korneĭ Ivanovich), 1882-1969

Ginsburg, Mirra

September 12, 1965

rus

Gift of Barbara Frenchi, 2002

1965-09-12

ex

Peredelkino, Moscow, Russia

correspondence

nnc-rb

Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture

eng

rd

Mirra Ginsburg Papers