Duse: A Biography - Softcover

Weaver, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156262592 ISBN 13: 9780156262590

Publisher: Mariner Books, 1985

Synopsis

Drawing on a wealth of unpublished letters, diaries, and personal papers, Weaver brings alive the legend of Italian actress Eleanor Duse, one of the greatest actresses in the history of the theater. Index; photographs.

About this title

About the Author:

William Fense Weaver (born 24 July 1923) is considered the preeminent living English language translator of Italian literature.

William Weaver is perhaps best known for his translations of the work of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino, and has translated many other prominent Italian authors over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years. In addition to prose, he has translated Italian poetry and opera libretti, and has worked as a critic and commentator on broadcasts of the U.S. Metropolitan Opera.

Born in the U.S. state of Virginia and educated at Princeton University B.A. (summa cum laude), 1946, with postgraduate study at the University of Rome, 1949.  Weaver was an ambulance driver in Italy during World War II for the American Field Service, and lived primarily in Italy after the end of the war. Through his friendships with Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia and others, Weaver met many of Italy's leading authors and intellectuals in Rome in the late 1940s and early 1950s; he paid tribute to them in his anthology Open City (1999).

Most recently, Weaver was a professor of literature at Bard College in New York, and a Bard Center Fellow. He received honorary degrees from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and Trinity College in Connecticut. According to translator Geoffrey Brock, Weaver was too ill to translate Umberto Eco's 2005 novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana, 2004).

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0156262592
• ISBN 13: 9780156262590
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384