Geoffrey David Skelton (1916–1998) was a British author and translator.Profile
/ref> He specialized in German music, writing biographies of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, Cosima Wagner, Wieland Wagner and Paul Hindemith. He also translated numerous plays by leading German-language writers such as

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

, Max Frisch and Peter Weiss. He won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize twice, the first one for his translation of Robert Lucas' biography of Frieda Lawrence and the second one for Siegfried Lenz's novel ''The Training Ground''.

Translations

* ''Frieda Lawrence'' by Robert Lucas * ''Cosima Wagner's Diaries: A New Selection'' by Cosima Wagner * ''Man in the Holocene'' by Max Frisch * ''Sketchbook 1966–1971'' by Max Frisch * ''Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith'' by Paul Hindemith * ''Bluebeard: A Tale'' by Max Frisch * ''The Training Ground'' by Siegfried Lenz * ''As You Were: A Farce'' by Johann Nestroy * '' Arden Must Die'', opera libretto by

Erich Fried Erich Fried (6 May 1921 – 22 November 1988) was an Austrian-born poet, writer, and translator. He initially became known to a broader public in both Germany and Austria for his political poetry, and later for his love poems. As a writer, he m ...

Co-translations

* ''Marat/Sade'' by Peter Weiss (co-translators: Gill Lamden, Geoffrey Skelton and Adrian Mitchell) * ''Collected Plays: "St Joan", "Mother", "Lindbergh's Flight", "Baden-Baden", "He Said Yes", "Decision", "Exception"'' by Bertolt Brecht (co-translators:

John Willett John William Mills Willett, MBE (24 June 1917 – 20 August 2002) was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English. Early life Willett was born in Hampstead and was educated ...

, Ralph Manheim and Geoffrey Skelton) * ''Three Plays: "Fire Raisers", "Andorra", "Triptych"'' by Max Frisch (co-translators: Michael Peter Loeffler, Geoffrey Skelton and Michael Bullock) * '' Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') ( English National Opera Guide 21) by Richard Wagner (co-translators: Geoffrey Skelton, Barry Millington and George Gillespie) * ''Cosima Wagner's Diaries, Vol. 2: 1878–1883'' by Cosima Wagner (co-translators: Martin Gregor-Dellin, Dietrich Mack and Geoffrey Skelton) * ''Living for Brecht: The Memoirs of Ruth Berlau'' by Ruth Berlau (co-translators: Hans Bunge and Geoffrey Skelton) * ' by Peter Weiss (co-translators: Geoffrey Skelton and Adrian Mitchell)

Books

* ''Wieland Wagner. The Positive Sceptic'' (Gollancz, 1971) * ''Paul Hindemith: The Man Behind the Music'' (Gollancz, 1975) * ''Wagner at Bayreuth: Experiment and Tradition'' (Barrie & Rockcliffe, 1965; revised ed. 1976) * ''Richard and Cosima Wagner: Biography of a Marriage'' (Gollancz, 1982) * ''Wagner in Thought and Practice'' (Lime Tree, 1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skelton, Geoffrey British biographers German–English translators 1916 births 1998 deaths 20th-century British translators 20th-century biographers Wagner scholars