My newest book is out: 11 essays on forgotten Finnish writers. It's already available at the Helsinki Book Fair to which I'll be attending only tomorrow.
My newest book is out: 11 essays on forgotten Finnish writers. It's already available at the Helsinki Book Fair to which I'll be attending only tomorrow.
Are any of them in translation? Or any unforgotten ones. I'd love to read a Finnish novel.
ReplyDeleteThere's at least one writer in my book that has had English translations: Elisabet Laurila. Her book of poetry came out in 1959 from a Californian small press publisher whose name escapes me totally at the moment. I seem to remember that I checked the book out on Abebooks to notice that there were no copies for sale. They also did other collections of Finnish poetry, one anthology and a collection by Aila Meriluoto who's been one of the most loved modernist poets in Finland. Saturn Press or something. Jupiter, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteYou could try Mika Waltari's historical novels that were quite huge even in the US in the fifties. You must've seen THE EGYPTIAN, the pretty mediocre Hollywood blockbuster with Edward Purdom. The book is vastly better. There are also recent translations by Matti Joensuu's police procedural novels that you might also like.
And while we're at it, just bear in mind that I'm still translating Tapani Bagge's noirish, hardboiled and hellishly funny crime novel PUHALTAJA into English for Point Blank Press. But I don't know when this will come out. Some time next year, perhaps and hopefully.
It was Marathon Press, not Saturn or Jupiter.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'll look for the Joensuu's.
ReplyDeleteJuri,
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to stumble onto your blog during a Google session and want to say first that you give me too much credit.
Leo Vuosalo (a Canadian-Finnish-American Finnish Army veteran) and I first translated several of Elisabet Laurila's poem in 1953 when we were students at UCLA and published them the same year in an anthology of contemporary Finnish poetry tieled "The Stone God and Other Poems." We also translated the entire volume "The Sun Sets On The Mountain"by Elisabet Laurila but did not publish it until 1959 while I was living in Helsinki (1956-1966). It had a press run of 2000 copies. In 1983 and 1984 we published about 400 more copies while I was teaching at Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Iowa.
In 1998 we published "Statue of Fire - The Collected Early Poems of Aila Meriluoto and are in the process of publishing "From Finnish To English," an anthology containing a poetry, drama, and prose. (More of this later.)
One highlight of my stay in Finland (aside from marrying Maini Pohjanvalta) was my translation of Rosvo Roope (Raunchy Ropey) that the Delta Rhythm Boys made into a English-language Finnish hit record in the mid-Sixties.
Steve Stone
emai: sstone@pvtnetworks.net
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeletethank you very much on your comments and insight to having Laurila's poems in English! Most interesting! Is Leo Vuosalo still alive?
Hi, Just ran into your blog, I have the 50's copy of The Stone God by Leo Vuosalo and Steve Stone, the book is also signed by Leo Vuosalo. The cover shows wear but the book of poems is a great read, Im cleaning house and I would hate to just toss this book, please email me at puppy_ruffy@yahoo.com and I will send it to you. Thank You Randy
ReplyDelete