Stanley Mitchell

Stanley Mitchell (12 March 1932, in Clapton, London – 16 October 2011, in Highbury, London) was a British translator, academic, and author, noted for his English verse translation of Alexander Pushkin's Russian verse novel Eugene Onegin.

Life and works Stanley Mitchell was born in London to immigrant Jewish parents, in a family in which Yiddish was often spoken. His father was born in Ukraine, and his mother's parents were in Belarus.

During his national service, he learnt German and Russian and went on to read modern languages at Lincoln College, Oxford, specialising in French, German and Russian. At Oxford he joined the Communist Party and helped to edit the journal Oxford Left. for capturing not only the precise meaning, but also the wit, the grace and the constantly varying intonations of Pushkin's voice. He was working on a translation of Pushkin's poem The Bronze Horseman at the time of his death. He struggled with bipolar disorder and at one time feared it would prevent him from completing a major work.

Stanley Mitchell married Hannah Brandstein in 1957, who died in 1994; they had one daughter and one son.