Coincidentally, last night I was watching C-SPAN's Book Notes
program, with the author Beppe Somebody, who'd written _An
Italian in America,_ or some such. (Well, my husband had it
on, and I was sort of listening while I was working.) When
asked why his 1994 book was just now available in the U.S.,
he said very few European books, even best-sellers, are
translated for the U.S. market. I thought of Terrill's
comments, too. According to the author, the cultural
isolationism ranges beyond fiction.
Joy, who thinks the publishers are too cheap to pay a
translator
Etienne Borgers <
wbac1203@wanadoo.be> said: Terrill Lankford
wrote:
> >I've been lurking through UK month, but found it
very interesting. One of
the
> >things I've found most illuminating is the sense
that we don't import
nearly
> >enough writing from outside this country, even
when it is in our own
> language.
> >I wanted to suggest that Etienne host a month on
French writers, then I
> >realized we don't get a whole lot of
translations of French HB works
here. It
> >seems we have a one way street going with this
issue most of the time.
Just
> >about anyone who writes a halfway decent book
can sell the rights to
France
> >for translation (or Japan, Germany, UK, Italy,
etc.), but our U.S.
publishers
> >don't seem very high on bringing in the
imports.
> >
>
> I totally agree with Terrill about this isolationism
of the USA
concerning
> popular lit.
> It's because the French (and from other Continental
origins) novels are
> scarcely translated, even for the UK market, that I
refrain from citing
> names of French authors that could illustrate some
of our general
> discussions here.
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