April FitzLyon (22 April 1920 – 17 September 1998) was an English translator, biographer, and historian.

Early life

Born Cecily April Mead, at Langton Herring, Dorset, in 1920, she was educated as a small child in France and later at St Mary's, Calne, in the west of England. She studied the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

, but did not go on to become a professional musician.

Marriage and children

In 1941, aged 20, she married Kyril Zinovieff, a Russian émigré who took the surname FitzLyon and who worked at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. The couple had two sons, Sebastian, who became a business man in France and later in Russia, and Julian, an information specialist. The family lived in Golders Green and later in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

, moving in literary circles and having many Russian friends.

Literary career

FitzLyon learned Russian from her husband's mother. In the 1950s, she approached a publisher with translations of stories by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

that were unknown in the UK, which she had produced jointly with her husband. They were published in 1953 as ''The Woman in the Case and Other Stories''. This was a great success and was quickly followed later the same year by translations of three short novels by Leo Tolstoy (''Three Novellas'', 1953). Of these, she translated two herself. She continued to translate literature from Russian, French and Italian, but began to concentrate on historical biographies. She published the first life of Lorenzo da Ponte,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's librettist who had been a revolutionary in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, debunking Ponte's own unreliable memoirs (''The Libertine Librettist'', 1955). After that, she translated Émile Zola's ''Au bonheur des dames'' (Ladies Delight, 1957), the correspondence between Romain Rolland and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

, and some recent French novels. She produced biographies of two Spanish singers, the daughters of Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García: firstly of

Pauline García-Viardot Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Paul ...

, who was a star of nineteenth century France (''The Price of Genius'', 1964), and later a new life of Pauline Viardot's sister Maria Malibran, one of the most notable opera singers of the century (''Maria Malibran: diva of the romantic age'', 1987). In researching her book on Viardot, FitzLyon found much on the singer's long relationship with Ivan Turgenev, and in 1983 she wrote the catalogue for the London Theatre Museum's centenary exhibition 'Turgenev and the Theatre'. In 1975 she published ''Nobody: or, The Disgospel according to Maria Dementnaya'', a translation of a Russian samizdat novel, ''Nikto'', which was about the seamy side of the life of Bohemian dissidents and had been smuggled out of Russia in 1966. She went on to translate verse from Russian into both English and French, contributed to '' Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', and wrote articles and reviews, including work for '' Encounter'', the '' Times Literary Supplement'' and '' The Literary Review''. The FitzLyons visited Russia both before and after the collapse of Communism. For about twenty-five years before her death, April FitzLyon was the General Secretary of the Russian Refugees Aid Society, and she made many broadcasts for BBC Radio. At the time of her death, her publisher

John Calder John Mackenzie Calder (25 January 1927 – 13 August 2018) was a Scottish-Canadian writer and publisher who founded the company Calder Publishing in 1949. Biography Calder was born in Montreal, Canada, into the Calder family associated with the ...

called her "a scholar of the old school".

Selected publications

*''The Woman in the Case and Other Stories'' (1953), translation of stories by

(jointly with Kyril FitzLyon) *''Three Novellas'' (1953), translations of three short novels by Leo Tolstoy (one of the three jointly with Kyril FitzLyon) *''The Devil and Family Happiness'', translation from Leo Tolstoy (London: Spearman & Calder, 1953, 2nd edition 1954) *''The Libertine Librettist'' (1955), a biography of Lorenzo da Ponte *''Ladies Delight'' (1957), translation of Émile Zola's ''Au bonheur des dames'' *''The Price of Genius'' (1964), a biography of

*''Blaze of Embers'' (Calder and Boyars, 1971), translation of novel by André Pieyre de Mandiargues *''Nobody: or, The Disgospel according to Maria Dementnaya'' (1975), novel translated from the Russian *'' Maria Malibran: diva of the romantic age'' (1987), a biography *''A month in the country: an exhibition presented by the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and arranged in conjunction with April FitzLyon'' (with Alexander Schouvaloff) catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Theatre Museum Ivan Turgenev centenary exhibition (1983)

References

External links

April FitzLyon
at bookfinder.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzlyon, April 1920 births 1998 deaths Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama English translators English biographers English historians People educated at St Mary's School, Calne People from Dorset Place of death missing Russian–English translators French–English translators Italian–English translators 20th-century British translators 20th-century British biographers