David H. Rosenthal (1945–1992) was an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

, and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

. He wrote mostly on the history of

jazz music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, m ...

and was also an important translator of Catalan literature. Among his translations was the abridged English rendering of the Catalan epic ''Tirant Lo Blanch'', of which

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his no ...

said, "I swear to you, my friend, it's the best book of its kind in the world." In 1986, he translated popular

Mercè Rodoreda Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (; 10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983) was a Spanish novelist, who wrote in Catalan. She is considered the most influential contemporary Catalan language writer, as evidenced by the references of other authors to her w ...

's novel '' The Time of the Doves.'' He passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 47, at the peak of his creative vitality. In 2008, his posthumous work ''Banderes al vent!'' was published in Catalan, a tribute to interwar Barcelona, with a foreword by Joan Rendé and an epilogue by María Luisa García Bermejo.

Selected books

* ''Eyes on the Street'' (1974) * ''Modern Catalan Poetry'' (editor, 1979) * ''Loves of the Poets: Poems'' (1989) * ''Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955–1965'' (1992) * ''The Journey: Poems'' (1992) * ''Four Postwar Catalan Poets'' (editor, 1994)

Personal archive

David Rosenthal’s personal archive was added to the Humanities Library at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2008. The collection comprises a selection of his handwritten and typescript translations, alongside various proof copies of the key works he translated, such as ''

Tirant lo Blanch ''Tirant lo Blanch'' (; modern spelling: ''Tirant lo Blanc''), in English ''Tirant the White'', is a chivalric romance written by the Valencian knight Joanot Martorell, finished posthumously by his friend Martí Joan de Galba and published in ...

'', ''The Book of Beasts'', '' Uncertain glory'', '' The Time of the Doves'', ''Camellia Street'' , among others. His notebooks contain a rich variety of unpublished writings, including drafts of poems, essays, jazz critiques, translations, and other materials. In addition, the archive holds copies of the works he published, both his own and the translations he produced throughout his career.

References

External links

Catalan Biography

David H. Rosenthal legacy
American book editors American writers about music Catalan–English translators Spanish–English translators Portuguese–English translators 1945 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American poets 20th-century American translators 20th-century American non-fiction writers {{US-poet-1940s-stub