Samuel Putnam

Samuel Putnam ( born October 10, 1892 in Rossville, Illinois, † January 15, 1950 in Lambertville, New Jersey) was an American translator and linguist.

Putnam was known for his tendency to political left (he was a columnist for the Daily Worker ). His most famous work is his 1949 published English translation of Miguel de Cervantes ' Don Quixote. It is the first version of the work in a contemporary English language. Although the translation of ancient language use is still being made, they will be limited used, as in previous English versions of the work. The language is formal but rarely dated, when it is spoken by the educated, while the country people speak in modern English vernacular. Putnam worked for twelve years at his translation before he published it. He also published a companion volume The Portable Cervantes, which contains a short version of his translation in addition to two of the exemplary novels of Cervantes. Putnam's complete translation was reprinted in the Modern Library, and has been since their appearance rare out in the nearly sixty years.

Putnam is also a translator of Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões ( under the English title rebellion in the Back Country, Chicago 1944; German in 1994 under the title " War in the Sertão " ) emerged from Rabelais, Aretino, and many other authors.

Drew him to the study of such contrasting characters such as Margaret of Navarre (1936) and Kiki of Montparnasse, whose memoirs he translated under the English title The Education of a French Model ( 1950).

Putnam the father of the philosopher Hilary Putnam 's (* 1926).