Eric Mosbacher

Eric Mosbacher (22 December 1903 – 2 July 1998) was an English journalist and translator from Italian, French, German and Spanish. He translated work by Ignazio Silone and Sigmund Freud.'Eric Mosbacher', '' The Times'', 10 July 1998, p.25

Life

Eric Mosbacher was born in London. He was educated at St Paul's School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating in 1924 in French and Italian. After working on local newspapers, he worked for the ''Daily Express'' and then the '' Evening Standard''. He also worked as assistant editor of the weekly ''Everyman'' and editor of ''Anglo-American News'', the London journal of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Mosbacher's wife, Gwenda David, introduced him to the work of Ignazio Silone, and the pair translated Silone's anti-Fascist novel '' Fontamara'' in 1934. Often working in collaboration with his wife, Mosbacher continued translating in parallel with his other jobs.

During World War II he worked as an interpreter interrogating Italian prisoners of war before joining the Political Warfare Executive in 1943, working alongside Sefton Delmer to produce a German-language newspaper to be dropped on Germany each night. In June 1945 he was sent to the Rhineland, now occupied by the British, to encourage a free press by starting two German-language newspapers there, ''Kolnischer Kurier'' and ''Ruhr-Zeitung''.

Demobilized in 1946 at the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Mosbacher was a public relations officer for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning before joining '' The Times'' as a sub-editor in 1948. Resigning from the ''Times'' in 1960, he continued to work at translation.

Translations

* (with Gwenda David) '' Fontamara'' by Ignazio Silone. London: Methuen & Co., 1934.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Spiridonova: revolutionary terrorist'' by Isaac Steinberg. London: Methuen & Co., 1935.
* (with Gwenda David) ''The last civilian'' by Ernst Glaeser. London: Nicholson & Watson, 1936.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Karl Marx: man and fighter'' by Boris Nicolaevsky and Otto Maenchen-Helfen. London: Methuen & Co., 1936.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Bread and wine'' by Ignazio Silone. London: Methuen & Co., 1936.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Offenbach and the Paris of his time'' by Siegfried Kracauer. London: Constable, 1937.
* ''The Triumph of Barabbas'' by Giovanni Giglio. London: Victor Gollancz, 1937.
* (with Franz Borkenau) ''I helped to build an army. Civil War memoirs of a Spanish staff officer'' by José Martín Blázquez. Translated from the Spanish. With an introduction by Borkenau. London: Secker & Warburg, 1939.
* (with Gwenda David) ''The school for dictators'' by Ignazio Silone. Translated from the Italian. London: Jonathan Cape, 1939.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Hitler and I''. Translated from the French ''Hitler et moi''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1940.
* (with Gwenda David) ''Birl. The story of a cat'' by Alexander Moritz Frey. London: Jonathan Cape, 1947.
* ''The fiancée'' by Alberto Vigevani. Translated from the Italian. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1948.
* ''The house by the medlar tree'' by Giovanni Verga. Translated from the Italian ''I Malavoglia''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1950.
* ''A hero of our time: a novel'' by Vasco Pratolini. Translated from the Italian ''Un eroe del nostro tempo''. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1951.
* (with David Porter) ''Russian purge and the extraction of confession'' by F. Beck (pseud.) and W. Godin (pseud.). Translated from the German. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1951.
* ''Secret Tibet'' by Fosco Maraini. Translated from the Italian ''Segreto Tibet''. London: Hutchinson, 1952.
* ''Heaven pays no dividends'' by Richard Kaufmann. Translated from the German ''Der Himmel zahlt keine Zinsen''. London: Jarrolds, 1952.
* (with James Strachey) ''The origins of psycho-analysis. Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, drafts and notes: 1887–1902'' by Sigmund Freud. Translated from the German ''Aus den Anfängen der Psychoanalyse. Briefe an Wilhelm Fliess''. London: Imago Publishing Co., 1954.
* ''Final contributions to the problems and methods of psycho-analysis'' by Sándor Ferenczi. Translated from the German. London: Hogarth Press, 1955.
* ''The state of France: a study of contemporary France'' by Herbert Lüthy. Translated from the German ''Frankreichs Uhren gehen anders''. London: Secker & Warburg, 1955.
* ''The bound man, and other stories'' by Ilse Aichinger. London: Secker & Warburg, 1955.
* ''Tune for an elephant'' by Elio Vittorini. Translated from the Italian ''Il Sempione strizza l'occhio al Frejus'' .London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1955.
* (with Oliver Coburn) ''Ambush'' by Jean Hougron. Translated from the French ''Rage blanche''. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1956.
* ''My secret diary of the Dreyfus case, 1894–1899'' by Maurice Paléologue. Translated from the French. London : Secker & Warburg, 1957.
* ''Meeting with Japan'' by Fosco Maraini. Translated from the Italian ''Ora Giapponesi''. New York: The Viking Press, 1959.
* ''Ferdydurke'' by Witold Gombrowicz. London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1961.
* (with Vivian Milroy) ''With my dogs in Russia'' by Hildegard Plievier. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., 1961.
* ''The fight against cancer'' by Charles Oberling. London: A. Deutsch, 1961.
* ''The fox and the camelias'' by Ignazio Silone. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961.
* ''The realm of the Great Goddess. The story of the megalith builders'' by Sybille von Cles-Reden. London: Thames & Hudson, 1962.
* ''Hekura: the diving girls' island'' by Fosco Maraini. London: H. Hamilton, 1962.
* ''I was Cicero'' by Elyesa Bazna. London: A. Deutsch, 1962.
* ''The shady miracle'' by Ernst Glaeser. London: Secker & Warburg, 1963.
* ''Thou shalt not kill'' by Igor Šentjurc. Translated from the German ''Der unstillbare Strom''. London, Dublin: Constable, 1963.
* ''Psycho-analysis and faith: the letters of Sigmund Freud & Oskar Pfister'' by Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press, 1963.
* (with Denise Folliot) ''The better song'' by Luc Estang. Translated from the French ''Le Bonheur et le salut''. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964.
* ''The torrents of war'' by Igor Šentjurc. Translated from the German. London: Transworld Publishers, 1965.
* ''Mannerism. The crisis of the Renaissance and the origin of modern art'' by Arnold Hauser. 2 vols. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965.
* '' La Vita agra; or, It's a hard life'' by Luciano Bianciardi. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1965.
* ''Simplicius 45: a novel'' by Heinz Küpper. Translated from the German. London: Secker & Warburg, 1966.
* ''Remembrance Day: thirteen attempts in prose to adopt an attitude of respect'' by Gerhard Zwerenz. London: Hutchinson, 1966.
* ''The end of the Jewish people?'' by Georges Friedmann. Translated from the French ''Fin du peuple juif?''. London: Hutchinson, 1967.
* ''Cosmos'' by Witold Gombrowicz. Translated from the French and German translations. London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1967.
* ''Society without the father: a contribution to social psychology'' by Alexander Mitscherlich. London: Tavistock Publications, 1969.
* ''Equilibrium'' by Tonino Guerra. Translated from the Italian. London: Chatto & Windus, 1969.
* (with others) ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer: theologian, Christian, contemporary'' by Eberhard Bethge. London: Collins, 1970.
* ''The end of an alliance: Rome's defection from the Axis in 1943'' by Friedrich-Karl von Plehwe. Translated from the German ''Schicksalsstunden in Rom''. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
* ''Fragments grave and gay'' by Karl Barth. London: William Collins Sons & Co., 1971.
* ''Infallible? an enquiry'' by Hans Küng. Translated from the German ''Unfehlbar? Eine Anfrage''. London: Collins, 1971.
* ''The hollow legions: Mullsolini's blunder in Greece, 1940–1941'' by Mario Cervi. London: Chatto & Windus, 1972.
* ''Marxism and history'' by Helmut Fischer. Translated from the German ''Marxismus und Geschichte''. London: Allen Lane, 1973.
* ''Solzhenitsyn'' by Giovanni Grazzini. Translated from the Italian. London: Joseph, 1973.
* ''Commemorations'' by Hans Herlin. Translated from the German 'Freunde''. London: Heinemann, 1975.
* ''Children of the SS'' by Clarissa Henry and Marc Hillel. Translated from the French ''Au nom de la race''. London: Hutchinson, 1976.
* ''The nuclear state'' by Robert Jungk. Translated from the German ''Atomstaat''. London: J. Calder, 1979.
* ''The biology of peace and war: men, animals and aggression'' by Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979.
* ''Cocaine'' by Pitigrilli. Feltham: Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1982.
* ''Franz Kafka of Prague'' by Jǐrí Gruša. Translated from the German ''Franz Kafka aus Prag''. London: Secker & Warburg, 1983.
* ''Nomenklatura: anatomy of the Soviet ruling class'' by Michael Voslenski. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
* ''Leonardo's Judas'' by Leo Perutz. Translated from the German ''Der Judas des Leonardo''. London: Collins Harvill, 1989.
* ''Saint Peter's snow'' by Leo Perutz. Translated from the German ''Sankt Petri-Schnee''. London: Collins-Harvill, 1990.
* ''By night under the stone bridge'' by Leo Perutz. Translated from the German ''Nachts unter der steinemen Brücke''. London: Collins Harvill, 1989.
* ''Psychoanalysis of the sexual functions of women'' by Helen Deutsch. London: Karnac, 1990.
* ' by Leo Perutz. Translated from the German ''Meister des jüngsten Tages''. London: Harvill, 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosbacher, Eric
1903 births
1998 deaths
French–English translators
German–English translators
Italian–English translators
Spanish–English translators
English male journalists
The Times people
20th-century translators
20th-century English male writers