Arguably the most prolific and influential American translator of Chinese Literature, Howard Goldblatt’s 40+ translated novels, several anthologies and many essays and articles have made him one of the most well-known translators of our time. The collection includes Goldblatt's personal papers (letters, drafts, notes, and other important papers) and over 6,000 volumes of his personal library.
As one of America’s most prolific and influential translators of any language, Howard Goldblatt (葛浩文, born 1939) has introduced generations of English readers to a wide spectrum of contemporary Chinese-language literature and brought translated Chinese literature from the confines of academia into the mainstream. With nearly 50 translations of novels, memoirs, and a major anthology of poetry, Goldblatt’s translations have been reviewed by the most prestigious magazines, newspapers, online media outlets, and by literary giants like John Updike, among others. He is the only official English-language translator of novelist Mo Yan, who won the Nobel Prize in literature. Goldblatt’s contributions to world literature have become well known, but what may be less so is that he has amassed an extensive collection of correspondence with authors, editors and publishing houses from across Mainland China, Taiwan, and elsewhere. Taken as a whole these notes, drafts, and correspondence reveal a deeper picture of the life of Chinese literature abroad, and they speak to the importance and glamor of literary translators as the cultural mediators of our time. The Howard Goldblatt Collection also includes his personal library of nearly 7,000 volumes, with over 600 books signed by their authors.