John Felstiner
John Felstiner, was an American literary critic, translator, and poet. His interests included poetry in various languages, environmental and ecologic poems, literary translation, Vietnam era poetry and Holocaust studies.
John Felstiner died in February 24, 2017 at the age of 80. He had been suffering from the effects of progressive aphasia at his time of death, at a hospice near Stanford.
Biography
Felstiner was born in Mount Vernon, New York and grew up in New York and New England. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, A.B., 1958, and Harvard University, Ph.D., 1965.From 1958 to 1961, he served on the USS Forrestal, in the Mediterranean. Felstiner came to Stanford University in 1965 and was a professor of English at Stanford until his retirement in 2009. Felstiner is also known for writing, non academically but very movingly, of a former student of his, Elizabeth Wiltsee, in the late 60’s at Stanford. Pretty, precocious “Liz” Wiltsee had been a brilliant literature student, who declined into mental illness and homelessness, never fulfilling her great promise. She died around the age of 50, under mysterious circumstances. While at Stanford, Felstiner was three times a fellow at Stanford Humanities Center; a Fulbright professor at University of Chile ; visiting professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; and visiting professor of Comparative Literature and English at Yale University.
His collection of Paul Celan’s manuscripts, letters, and widespread context, along with Felstiner’s own translation archive, are housed at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
John and his wife, the writer, historian and professor Mary Lowenthal Felstiner, have two children: Sarah and Alek, and also two grandchildren.
Selected works
The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories by Henry James, edited with an introduction, biography, and notes by John Felstiner, 1966, Scholastic Book Services, ASIN B000V51Y68- , 1967The Lies of Art: Max Beerbohm's Parody and Caricature, 1972, Alfred A. Knopf, The Dark Room and Other Poems, by Enrique Lihn, co-translator John Felstiner New Directions, 1978, ASIN B002SMJFNGTranslating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu, Stanford University Press, 1980,
- , Representations 32, 1990, Looking for Kafka, Stanford: Associates of the Stanford University Libraries, 1990, ASIN B002RYON96
- , Stanford Magazine, Winter 1991Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew, Yale University Press, 1995, Heights of Macchu Picchu / Alturas de Macchu Picchu, by Pablo Neruda, translator John Felstiner, with photographs by Edward Ranney, Limited Editions Club, 1998, ASIN B000WW5FYMJewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, Co-editor, W.W. Norton, 2000, Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan, editor and translator, W.W. Norton, 2001,
- , Stanford Magazine, Sept.- Oct. 2001Paul Celan Meets Samuel Beckett, American Poetry Review, July - August 2004
- , The New Republic, 12 June 2006
- ., Jacket 31, October 2006
- , American Poetry Review, Mar.- Apr. 2007
- , The Weekly Standard, 28 May 2007
- , Jacket 34, October 2007
- , The Weekly Standard, 22 September 2008Modern Critical Views: Emily Dickinson, ed. Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publications, 2008,
- , WORDS without BORDERS, 2008
- , Jacket 36, 2008
- , introduction and translation from the French by John Felstiner, Fiction 54, 2008Can Poetry Save the Earth?: A Field Guide to Nature Poems, Yale University Press, 2009,
- , Free Verse: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry & Poetics, Summer 2010
- , Poetry Society of America
- , Poetry Foundation,
- , Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
- , Jacket2, 21 November 2014
- , Michigan Quarterly Review, 10 December 2014
Selected honors and awards
- First Kenyon Review Prize in Criticism, for Max Beerbohm and the Wings of Henry James
- National Endowment for the Arts Literature and Translation Fellowships
- Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, and Bellagio Center Residency Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu won the California Commonwealth Club Gold Medal for Non-fiction.Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew won the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Criticism and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award and the Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell prize.Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan won translation prizes from the American Translators Association, Modern Language Association, and PEN West.
- Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005.
Selected interviews, book reviews, and articles
- Audio: from KQED "Forum" with Michael Krasny on NPR
- Stanford Magazine, September/October 2001
- Stanford University News, April 1, 2009
- Stanford University News, April 30, 2010
- by Ilya Kaminsky, In Posse Review
- A film by Bill Rose based on the memoir by John Felstiner
- by Cynthia Haven, The Book Haven, October 21, 2012
- by Cynthia Haven, The Book Haven, March 3, 2017