A Tribute to Translator Edith Grossman

When Two Lines Press was first forming, we sat down to discuss the translators we most wanted to work with on books. We had worked with hundreds of translators and authors from the journal, but a book project is different, it’s a relationship that spans years. And because we were new, and because we were a press whose mission highlighted the art of translation, Edith Grossman’s name came up again and again, even though we thought it unlikely she would be willing to do a book with a brand new small press.

But Edie signed the very first translator contract for a book with Two Lines Press, lending us her name and her credibility. She was willing to go through multiple drafts of our contract to set the terms—like the guarantee of the translator’s name on the cover, which has been standard in every Two Lines Press contract since that very first one—and she was willing to talk through what it would be to build a press that centers the work of its translators.

There have been many, and will surely be more (though certainly not enough), celebrations of her translations, which have not only influenced multiple generations of translators, but—and I write this extreme statement without reservation—changed the course of literature in the United States by leaving an indelible mark on the American authors who write under the influence of her words. All of us at Two Lines are incredibly saddened at the thought of not getting another new Edith Grossman translation, but we celebrate her life lived in activism for her craft, transformational art, and kindness.

—CJ Evans, Two Lines Press editor-in-chief

Read an excerpt from Grossman’s case for the importance of literary translation, Why Translation Matters.(opens in a new tab)