J. M. Cohen
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J. M. (John Michael) Cohen (5 February 1903 – 19 July 1989) was a prolific British translator of European literature into English.


Life

Born in London, J.M. Cohen was educated at St. Paul's School and Queens' College of
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. 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 Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...
, then unknown outside the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. His translation of Pasternak garnered praise from American poet
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
, in his book ''Other Traditions''. In 1946, on the strength of a commission from
Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
for a major translation of ''Don Quixote'', Cohen quit his teaching job to dedicate himself full-time to writing and translation. His workmanlike and accurate translation of ''Don Quixote'', published in 1950, has been highly praised, and remained in print until 2000. However, some critics have compared it unfavourably to the translation by Samuel Putnam on the basis of Cohen being "too faithful to the original." 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 Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
,
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
, and
Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), '' Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), '' The Old Gringo'' (1985) and '' Christop ...
, and by bringing the works of
Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...
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'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' described him as "the translator of foreign prose classics for our times." ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' 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 Cohen

*
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...
, ''Selected Poems'', London: Drummond, 1946. *
Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
, ''
Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
'', Penguin, 1950. *
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...
, ''The Confessions'', Penguin, 1953. *
François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , ; ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A Renaissance humanism, humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholars in the Renaissance, Gr ...
, ''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 Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the the essay ...
, ''Essays'', Penguin, 1958. * Bernal Díaz, ''The Conquest of New Spain'', Penguin, 1963. *
Fernando de Rojas Fernando de Rojas (c. 1465/73, in La Puebla de Montalbán, Toledo, Spain – April 1541, in Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, Spain) was a Spanish author and dramatist, known for his only surviving work, '' La Celestina'' (originally titled ''Trag ...
, ''La Celestina or The Spanish Bawd: Being the Tragi-Comedy of Calisto and Melibea'', Penguin, 1964. *
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (; 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit, Catholic priest, scientist, palaeontologist, theologian, and teacher. He was Darwinian and progressive in outlook and the author of several influential theologi ...
, ''The Appearance of Man'', London: Collins, 1965. * Agustin de Zárate, ''The Discovery and Conquest of Peru'', Penguin, 1968. *
Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
, ''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 Padilla Heberto Juan Padilla, (20 January 1932 – 25 September 2000) was a Cuban poet put to the center of the so-called Padilla affair when he was imprisoned for criticizing the Cuban government. He was born in Puerta de Golpe, Pinar del Río, Cub ...
, ''Sent off the Field: A Selection from the Poetry of Heberto Padilla'', London: Deutsch, 1972.


Books and anthologies edited by 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 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.


Works cited

*


References


External links


J.M. Cohen – Penguin UK Authors
*Translated Penguin Books – a
Penguin First Editions
reference site of early first edition Penguin Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, John Michael 1903 births 1989 deaths People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge British anthologists 20th-century British translators Russian–English translators Spanish–English translators Translators of Miguel de Cervantes French–English translators