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Acknowledgements
We owe special thanks to Jonathan Stalling at the Chinese Literature Translation Archive, Dr. Wenqian Zhang from the University of Leeds, and editor Emily J. Schuster of Oklahoma University Press.
Declaration of interest
All the correspondence between the translator, the editor and the publisher were collected from the Howard Goldblatt Collection in the Chinese Literature Translation Archive at the University of Oklahoma (USA). There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1. Jansen and Wegener, “Multiple Translatorship,” 1–39.
2. Solum, “Translators, Editors, Publishers, and Critics,” 39–60.
3. Stillinger, Multi-authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius, v.
4. Ibid., v.
5. Yan, A Study on Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Habitus, 105.
6. Thompson, Merchants of Culture, 15.
7. Editors play a key role in the publishing industry. According to their functions, editors are further classified into acquisition editors, manuscript editors, and copy editors. An acquisition editor is responsible for bringing in new books, recruiting new authors, and ultimately signing contracts with them. A manuscript editor reviews the manuscript and evaluates the level of copyediting it will need. The manuscript editor then will select a copy editor to do the actual editing considering the time, the funding available from the press for editing this particular project, and the level of openness the author is likely to have to the editing.
8. Munday, “The Role of Archival and Manuscript Research in the Investigation of Translator Decision-making,” 125–39.
9. Munday, “Using Primary Sources to Produce a Microhistory of Translation and Translators,” 64–80.
10. Billiani, “Renewing a Literary Culture,” 138–60.
11. Filippakopoulou, “Translation Drafts and the Translating Self,” 19–36.
12. Qi, “Agents of Latin,” 42–60.
13. Walker, “Unbinding the Japanese Novel.”
14. Xu, “Translation Process Study,” 95–103.
15. Zhang, “Translation Networks and Power,” 185–205.
16. Stalling, “Chinese Literature Translation Archive,” forthcoming.
17. Jansen and Wegener, “Multiple Translatorship,” 27.
18. Stillinger, Multi-authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius, 203. The list includes nearly one hundred British and American canonical authors, from William Wordsworth to Annie Beattie.
19. Ibid., 145.
20. Commins, What Is an Editor?
21. “Black Day for the Blue Pencil,” The Observer, Saturday, August 6, 2005.
22. See “Nan Graham, Editor-in-chief,” accessed September 1, 2018, http://www.danaroc.com/inspiring_121905nangraham.html.
23. Ibid.
24. October 20, 1993, from Nan Graham to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
25. Yan, A Study on Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Habitus, 150–59.
26. May 5, 1994, from Courtney Hodell to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
27. Ibid.
28. Swain, Creating Characters, 132.
29. Editing websites show that there are three levels of editing: light, medium, and heavy. A light edit would involve correcting grammatical errors and typos and conforming the manuscript to Chicago style; a medium edit entails correcting grammatical errors and typos, conforming the manuscript to Chicago style, reducing wordiness and repetition when it could be distracting to the reader, and so forth; and a heavy edit would involve doing all of these things, plus more developmental work (restructuring paragraphs and whole sections, deleting and inserting significant amounts of text, paying more attention to a specific aspect of the manuscript—perhaps redoing the notes and bibliography).
30. November 20, 1995, from Terry Karten (Harper Collins Publishers) to Sandra Dijkstra, Series 1, Box 6, folder 3, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
31. February 5, 1997, from Sara Bershtel (Metropolitan Books) to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 6, folder 3, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
32. See note 21 above.
33. In this letter, “m.s.” is the shortened form of “manuscript.”
34. May 2, 1994, from Sandra Dijkstra to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
35. May 9, 1994, from Sandra Dijkstra to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
36. Sep. 29, 2005, from Sandra Dijkstra to Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
37. See “‘Discovery’ of Mo Yan,” Liaoshen Evening Post, October 20, 2013, accessed August 10, 2018, http://www.chinanews.com/cul/2013/10-20/5400817.shtml.
38. Goldblatt, “The Writing Life.”
39. June 15, 1994, from Mo Yan to Goldblatt, Series1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
40. November 15, 1988, from Tianwen Zhu to Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin, Series 1, Box 11, folder 6, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
41. March 8, 1998, from Li Rui to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 6, folder 3, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
42. April 16, 2014, from Bi Feiyu to Howard Goldblatt, Series 1, Box 1, folder 10, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
43. According to Yu-Ling Chung (Translation and Fantasy Literature in Taiwan), there are copyright agencies in Taiwan that sell foreign translation rights to publishers; these copyright agencies sometimes act as literary agents. In the Fantasy genre, some translators offer suggestions to publishers and serve as literary agents (P92–93). However, in mainland China, literary agents were not seen until the late 2000s, and they are far from a fixed link between the author and the publisher. See “Do We Need a Literary Agent?” published online by Making Books at https://cul.qq.com/a/20160918/006896.htm in 2016.
44. Goldblatt, “The Writing Life.”
45. Pym, “Translator as Non-Author.”
46. Bassnett and Bushm, eds. Translator as Writer.
47. Unknown date, “Howard Goldblatt’s The Misadventures of Ma Bo’le The Beginnings of a Wartime Chinese Trilogy to Be Translated, Tinkered with and completed by Howard Goldblatt,” Series 3, Box 23, folder 3, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
48. Ibid.
49. Goldblatt, “A Forbidden Food,” 477–85.
50. March 27, 2000, from Howard Goldblatt to William Tay, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
51. Unnumbered dates, from Howard Goldblatt to Mo Yan, Series 1, Box 7, folder 2, Howard Goldblatt Collection, University of Oklahoma libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.
52. Delisle and Woodsworth, eds. Translators through History.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Jia Yan
Jia Yan is a lecturer at Civil Aviation University of China with a PhD in translation and was a visiting scholar in the Chinese Literature Translation Archive at the University of Oklahoma in 2018. Her PhD dissertation is a thorough study of Howard Goldblatt’s translation features and strategies over the years: A Study on Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Habitus from a Sociological Perspective. She is engaged in the study of translations of contemporary Chinese novels and poetry through publications including The Journey of Chinese Contemporary Authors, An Overview of the Translation of Chinese Contemporary Poetry, and A Dilemma in the Translation of Poetry in Notes of a Desolate Man. She has also translated Island, written by Aldous Leonard Huxley, into Chinese, as well as Revolution and Its Inverted Image: A Dialogue with Ai Wei.
Juan Du
Juan Du (the corresponding author) is the associate professor at College of Foreign Studies, Liaoning University. Her research interests have been English language and marketing. E-mail: [email protected]