The Forgotten Translator

In your issue of April 2, your book critic, Richard Eder, wrote a favorable review of J. F. Federspiel’s “An Earthquake in My Family,” which I was pleased to read.

However, at the risk of being considered self-serving, I wonder why he omitted to mention the translator. As I am not a regular reader of your paper, I have no way of ascertaining whether this is standard procedure for reviews of works in translation, but it is a fact that translators, who put so much effort into making foreign language writing accessible to the American public, are all too often ignored by reviewers. Could not book review editors encourage their reviewers to comment on the quality of the translations? Surely translators deserve professional recognition for their part in what are after all joint enterprises.

EVELINE L. KANES

Albany, N.Y.

Eveline L. Kanes translated “An Earthquake in My Family” from the Swiss-German.