Five women translators to celebrate on International Translation Day

Clemence Royer, scientific translator

International Translation Day falls on September 30 each year, but translators should be celebrated year round for what they contribute to how literature becomes a common thread between cultures.

Here are five women translators of the past whose work was groundbreaking, contributing to gender equality, education for all, abolitionism and scientific knowledge across borders and languages.

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Claudine Picardet,
chemist and scientific translator

Claudine Picardet

Claudine Picardet (1735–1820) was a French chemist, mineralogist and meteorologist living in Dijon, a town in eastern France. She was the only woman at the Dijon Academy, and the only scientist who was proficient in five foreign languages (Latin, English, Italian, German, Swedish).

Claudine decided to translate a number of books and articles into French  that were written by leading scientists of her time, for the benefit of her colleagues.

She translated three books and dozens of scientific papers originally written in Swedish (works by Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman), in English (works by John Hill, Richard Kirwan and William Fordyce), in German (works by Johann Christian Wiegleb, Johann Friedrich Westrumb, Johann Carl Friedrich Meyer and Martin Heinrich Klaproth) and in Italian (works by Marsilio Landriani).

Claudine Picardet’s translations were essential for the dissemination of scientific knowledge during the Chemical Revolution, a movement led by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, often called the Father of modern chemistry.

She also hosted renowned scientific and literary salons in Dijon and in Paris, where she moved later on, and actively participated in the collection of meteorological data.

 

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Sarah Austin, tireless advocate
of public education for all

Sarah Austin, translator

As a child, Sarah Austin (1793–1867) studied Latin, French, German and Italian in her native England. After marrying legal philosopher John Austin in 1819, she became a translator and editor, and corresponded extensively with many writers. The couple moved from London to Bonn, Germany, in 1827, living largely on Sarah’s income.

Sara translated into English a few works written by her German and French contemporaries, for example Characteristics of Goethe from the German of Falk, von Müller, etc., with notes, original and translated, illustrative of German literature (in 1833), as well as books by German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Carové (in 1834), German historian Leopold von Ranke (in 1840) and French historian François Guizot (in 1850).

One of her translations was the Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia, written in 1832 by French philosopher Victor Cousin for the French Minister of Public Education.

In the preface to her translation (published in 1834), she personally pleaded for the cause of public education. She also advocated for a national system of education in England in a pamphlet published in 1839 in the Foreign Quarterly Review.

She regularly stood for her intellectual rights as a translator, writing that “It has been my invariable practice, as soon as I have engaged to translate a work, to write to the author of it, announcing my intention, and adding that if he has any correction, omission, or addition to make, he might depend on my paying attention to his suggestions” (in “Sarah Austin,” Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 2, 1885).

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Clémence Royer (1830-1902),
translator of Charles Darwin’s seminal book

Clemence Royer, scientific translator

Clémence Royer (1830–1902) was a self-taught French scholar who undertook the major task of translating English naturalist Charles Darwin’s seminal book On the Origin of Species (first published in 1859). His concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection was attracting widespread interest outside Britain, and Darwin was eager to have his book translated into French.

In the first French edition (1862), based on the third English edition, Clémence Royer went beyond her role as a translator, with a 60-page preface expressing her own views and many detailed explanatory footnotes.

Her own views had more in common with French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s ideas than with Darwin’s ideas. After reading her translation, Darwin was unhappy with her preface and footnotes and, according to him, her lack of knowledge in natural history.

Darwin requested the correction of some errors and inaccuracies in the second French edition (1866). The third French edition (1873) was produced without Darwin’s consent, with a second preface that also made Darwin unhappy, and an appendix that forgot the additions to the fourth and fifth English editions and only included the additions to the sixth English edition (published in 1872).

After three French editions (1862, 1866, 1873) published by Guillaumin, the fourth French edition (1882) was published by Flammarion the year of Darwin’s death, and stayed popular until 1932. Her controversial translation brought fame to Clémence Royer, who extensively wrote and lectured on philosophy, feminism and science, including on Darwinism.

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Mary Louise Booth, translator of major books
by anti-slavery advocates

Mary Louise Booth

Born in Millville (now Yaphank) in the State of New York, Mary Louise Booth (1831–1899) was of French descent on her mother’s side.

After moving to New York City at the age of 18, she wrote many pieces for various newspapers and magazines, and translated around 40 books from French into English, including works by writers Joseph Méry and Edmond François Valentin About, and by philosopher Victor Cousin.

She assisted Orlando Williams Wight, a fellow American translator, in producing a series of translations of French classics. She also wrote a History of the City of New York (1859) that became a bestseller.

When the American Civil War started in 1861, she translated French anti-slavery advocate Agénor de Gasparin’s book Uprising of a Great People (just published in France) in a very short time by working twenty hours a day for one week. Her translation was published in a fortnight by American publisher Scribner’s and widely distributed.

Then she translated Gasparin’s America before Europe (translation published in 1861), as well as books by other anti-slavery advocates, including Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin Cochin’s Results of Emancipation and Results of Slavery (1862) and Édouard René de Laboulaye’s Paris in America (1865).

She received praise and encouragement from President Abraham Lincoln, Senator Charles Sumner and other statesmen for her invaluable contribution towards the abolition of slavery.

She also translated other books by the same authors, including Gasparin’s religious works (written with his wife) and Laboulaye’s Fairy Book, as well as Fairy Tales by educator Jean Macé, History of France by historian Henri Martin, and Provincial Letters by philosopher Blaise Pascal.

She became the first editor-in-chief of the newly created magazine Harper’s Bazaar from 1867 until her death in 1899. Under her leadership, the magazine steadily increased its circulation and influence to become a household name. After struggling financially for decades as a writer and translator, she finally earned a larger salary than any woman in America.

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Alix Strachey,
translator of Freud’s complete works

The letters of James and Alix Strachey

Alix Strachey (1892–1973), an American-born English psychoanalyst, spent her whole life working alongside her husband, James Strachey, who was a fellow English psychoanalyst. Shortly after getting married in 1920, they left for Vienna, Austria, and spent two years studying psychology with famed Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

At Freud’s request, they first translated some of his articles from German into English. Then they worked tirelessly for many years (from 1953 to 1966) to translate his complete works (written between 1886 to 1939), in collaboration with Anna Freud, Freud’s youngest daughter, and with the help of English musicologist and translator Alan Tyson.

The 24-volume translation was published in 1953-74 by Hogarth Press in London under the title The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, with James Strachey as its editor. Also known to scholars as The Standard Edition (SE), it included introductions to Freud’s various works and extensive bibliographical and historical footnotes, It quickly became the reference edition of Freud’s works in English, and a reference work for translations into other languages.

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More women translators are celebrated in the ebook Some Women Translators of the Past (July 2024)

Also by Marie Lebert: 10 Lost Ladies of Literary Translation

Article written by Marie Lebert (edited by Nava Atlas). Marie Lebert is a French translator and librarian who has worked for international organizations and global projects in several countries. She is currently based in Australia. She writes about translation and translators – past and present — with a focus on women translators.

Women translators have been forgotten for too long before being recently acknowledged in Wikipedia thanks to its many contributors. Marie holds a PhD in linguistics (digital publishing) from the Sorbonne, Paris. Her articles, essays and ebooks are available online in English, French and Spanish at Marie Lebert

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