Ralph Manheim

Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th century, and likened translation to acting, the role being "to impersonate his author".

Early life Manheim was born to a Jewish family in New York City. His father was a rabbi and his mother a homemaker. He lived for a year in Germany and Austria as an adolescent and graduated from Harvard at the age of 19, and spent time in Munich and Vienna (studying at the universities)

He moved to Paris in 1950 and lived there until 1985, when he moved with his fourth wife to Cambridge, England.

He was awarded a 1983 MacArthur Fellowship in Literary Studies. He won the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, a major lifetime achievement award in the field of translation, in 1988.

Manheim's 1961 translation of Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) was elected to fourth place among outstanding translations of the previous half century by the Translators Association of the Society of Authors on the occasion of their 50th anniversary in 2008.