Clarence Fleetwood Brown

Early years. Becoming a profession

Clarence Brown was born in 1929 in Anderson ( South Carolina ). From childhood he loved to draw cartoons and caricatures , during the war years he was the editor of a school newspaper ^[1] .

He studied ancient Greek and Russian literature , in 1950 he graduated from Duke University with a bachelor 's degree in classical philology . After graduating from university he was drafted into the army , served for four years in the security forces . The year was devoted to the intensive study of Russian and German in the school of military translators in Monterey , after graduating Brown was sent to Berlin as a translator from German ^{[2] [1]} .

After serving in the army, he entered the graduate school of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor , in 1955 received a master 's degree in linguistics ^[1] . Then he studied at Harvard University (among the teachers were R. Jacobson , V. M. Sechkarev , R. Poggioli ), in 1962 he defended his thesis "The Life and Work of Osip Mandelstam", which became the first qualifying work in the world about the poet ^[3] .

Teaching activity

From 1959 he taught at Princeton University , in 1962 he became an assistant professor, in 1964 he was enlisted in the state. In 1969–1971 - Professor of Russian Literature at the Department of Romance Languages ( English Department of Romance Languages ), in 1971–1999 - Professor of Comparative Literature at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature ( English Department of Slavic Languages ​​and Literature ). Gave lectures on the Russian language and literature, led seminars and special courses on acmeism , works of O. Mandelstam, E. Zamyatin , V. Nabokov , fantasy , science fiction , dystopia , translation art, history of American caricature , literary art and others ^{[3 ] [1] [4]} .

In USSR / Russia

In 1962–1966, the “ cold war ” period, Brown came to the Soviet Union several times, lived in Moscow and Leningrad , communicated with dissidents and disgraced writers and dissidents - A. A. Akhmatova , V. T. Shalamov , N. I Mandelstam ^{[K 1]} , EG Etkind and others ^{[6] [7]} . With the participation and assistance of Brown, manuscripts banned in the USSR were forwarded abroad and published abroad, including Memoirs by N. Ya. Mandelstam, Kolyma Tales by V. T. Shalamov. Clarence Brown was a member of the illegal “Committee of Four,” formed by N. Ya. Mandelstam on the model of the Soviet literary heritage commissions, “a body designed to coordinate all actions for publishing and translating its books in the West” ^{[3] [8] [9] [K 2]} . In the spring of 1966, Brown made audio recordings of conversations with the poet's widow, containing comments on individual poems, clarifying biographical realities, etc. ^[7] Brown’s reminiscences about meetings with Nadezhda Yakovlevna were published in Russian Review ^[11] .

In 1991, Clarence Brown participated in the Second Mandelstam Readings held in Moscow in Moscow, and was elected to the Council of Mandelstam Society ^[12] .

Scientific work

Clarence Brown is the author of about 45 works on Russian literature of the 20th century. He acted as the author of monographs , translator , compiler, author of prefaces and epilogues, commentator ^[13] .

Translated into English the prose and poetry of O. Mandelstam, the novel Eug. Zamyatin " We ", the works of V. M. Zhirmunsky on the theory of literature and others. ^{[14] [15] [16] [17] The} first book published by Mandelstam’s prose translations "The prose of Osip Mandelstam" ^{[14] was} nominated for US National Book Award ^{[1] [4]} . According to G. Davenport ,

The translation of Mandelshtam Clarence Brown not only introduces the English reader to the greatest Russian artist of the 20th century, but is himself one of the best examples of translation art: amazing accuracy, intonation and sense of the era.

Original Text (Eng.)

Clarence Brown's translation of the mandelstam not only gives the reader of the translator's message: a miracle of accuracy, a tone, and a feeling of period.

- Guy Davenport ^[18]

The first biography of Mandelstam (1973) written by Brown was included in the list of finalists of the National Book Award in the 1974 non-fiction genre ^[19] and won the Christian Gauss Award for literary criticism ^{[4] [20] [1]} . In the 1960s, the researcher participated in the publication of the American collected works of Mandelstam ^[21] , on the basis of which in 1974 in the United States was published the world's first concordance to Mandelstam's works (with Brown's preface) ^{[12] [22] [23]} .

In 1976, according to the will of the widow of the poet , through the mediation of C. Brown, the archive of Mandelstam was transferred to Princeton ^[24] . In his “library chamber”, Brown made the first brief descriptions of the materials, then the archive entered the department of manuscripts and rare books of the Firestone Library of Princeton University ^[25] . Brown was the first curator of the archive ^{[26] [27]} .

In 1960–1970, Clarence Brown was a member of the board of directors of the National Translation Center. Since 1990, he has been a member of the committee of the National Poetic Prize awarded by the Library of Congress National Congress on the behalf of the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt ^{[1] [4]} .

Artistic Creativity

Brown's love of caricatures persisted throughout his life. According to students, he often accompanied his lectures with visual art impromptu, throwing them on the blackboard . One of his seminars in Princeton was devoted to George Herriman ’s comic book “ Krazy Kat ” ( Rus. “Crazy Cat” ). In 1977–1984, Brown worked as an editor of caricatures in the magazine “ Saturday Review ”, his artworks were also published in the magazines “ The Spectator ” ^[28] , “ Esquire ”, “ Playboy ”, “ Village Voice ”, “ Princeton Alumni Weekly ”and other publications (part under the pseudonym Flynn Belloc ) ^[29] . In 1984, the talent of the professor was noted by the newspaper " The New York Times ". Since 1991, Brown has been leading a cartoons column “Ink Soup” ( Eng. Ink Soup ) in the Trenton daily newspaper “ Times ” ^{[1] [4]} .

Recent years

In the 1999/2000 school year, Clarence Brown received the status of honorary professor at Princeton University. After retirement he moved to Seattle , continued his literary work and columnist work in periodicals ^[4] .

He died in a dream on July 18, 2015 ^[1] .

Monographs

• Brown C. Mandelstam / Clarence Brown. - L .; NY; Melbourne: Cambridge univ. press, 1973. - 320 p. - ISBN 0-521-20142X . ^{[K 3]}

Anthologies

• The Portable twentieth century Russian reader / ed., Introd. and notes by C. Brown. - N. Y .: Viking, 1985. - 599 p. - (The Viking portable library). - ISBN 9780670805310 . ^{[K 4]}

Translations

• Mandelstam O. The prose of Osip Mandelstam / transl. C. Brown. - Princeton, NJ: Princeton univ. press, 1965. - 209 p. - ISBN 0-86547-238-6 . ^{[30] [K 5]} Repr. ed .: The Prose of the Osip Mandelstam: The Noise of Time, Theodosia, The Egyptian Stamp / transl. with critical essays by C. Brown. - Repr. ed. 1965. - San Francisco: North Point Press, 1986. - ISBN 0-86547-238-6 .
• Munirmunskij V. Introduction to metrics: The theory of verse = [Introduction to the metric: Theory of verse] / transl. from the Russian by CF Brown; ed. with an introd. by E. Stankiewicz and WN Vickery. - L .: Mouton, 1966. - 245 p. - (Slavistic printings and reprintings / Ed. By CH van Schooneveld; 58).
• Mandelstam O. Selected Poems by Osip Mandelstam / transl. by C. Brown and WS Merwin. - Oxford: Oxford univ. press, 1973. - 100 p. - ISBN 0-19-211826-9 . ^{[K 6]}
• Zamyatin Yevg. We = [We] / transl. and with an introd. by C. Brown. - N. Y .: Penguin Books, 1993. - 221 p. - (Penguin twentieth-century classics). - ISBN 0140185852 . - ISBN 978-0-14-018585-0 ^{[K 7]}

Other

• Brown K. The Secret Freedom of Osip Mandelstam // New Journal. - N.-Y. , 1965. - № 80 . - pp . 86-104 .
• Mandelʹshtam N. Hope Against Hope: A Memoir = [Memories] / introd. by C. Brown; transl. M. Hayward. - L .: Collins & Harvill press, 1971. - 432 p. - ISBN 978-0-00-262501-2 . - ISBN 0-00-262501-6
• Mandelstam O. E. Sobr. cit. : in 3 t. / ed. and from the entry. Art. G. P. Struve, B. A. Filippova . - Washington; NY: Inter-Language Literary Associates / International Literary Commonwealth, 1965-1971. - T. 1: Poems / intro. Art. C. Brown, G. P. Struve, and E. M. Rice . - 1965. - 598 s. - 2nd ed., Revision. and add. - 1967.
• Kouburlis, DJ A concordance to the poemes of Osip Mandelstam / ed. by DJ Kouburlis, with a foreword by Cl. Brown. - Ithaca, NY: Cornell univ. press, 1974. - 678 p.

• Christian Gauss Award ( English The Christian Gauss Award ) in the field of literary criticism (1974) for the book "Mandelstam" - the world's first biography of the poet ^{[15] [20]}
• Professor Emeritus of Princeton University (1999)

According to 21st century literary critics, Clarence Brown - "one of the pioneers in the study of the work of Mandelstam " ^[1] . The contribution of the scientist as “the actual discoverer of Mandelstam for an English-speaking reader” was celebrated at the “Mandelstam Heritage” conference held in Princeton in 2001 and dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the transfer of the poet’s archive to the university collection ^{[31] [32]} .

Clarence Brown as the “Elder of American Mandelstam Studies” is dedicated to the 21st edition of the “Notes of Mandelstam Society”, published in 2012 in two editions ^{[33] [34]} .

Despite the incomplete coverage, due to the inaccessibility of information at the time of writing ^{[35] [K 8]} , the first scientific biography of Mandelstam Clarence Brown ^[15] still remains important for researchers ^{[1] [36]} .

• Nerler P. M. Osip Mandelstam and America. - 2nd ed., Ext. and pererabat. - M .: Verdana, 2012. - 254 p. - (Notes of Mandelstam society; vol. 21). - 250 copies - ISBN 978-5-901439-48-7 . (1st ed. - M .; Stavropol: Izd-vo SSU, 2012. - 182 p. - 200 copies. - ISBN 978-5-88648-809-8 .)