William Jay Smith, a prolific man of letters for over 40 years, has
produced more than 30 books of poetry, criticism, translations, and
children's literature. A native of St. Louis and an alumnus of
Washington University (BA 1939, MA 1941), he has received numerous
literary honors and has read his work at universities and symposia
throughout the world. Smith has held academic appointments at a number
of universities and served as the Poetry Consultant to the Library of
Congress from 1968 to 1970.
Although Smith is equally at home in most literary genres, he is
probably best known today for his work as a translator and for the role
he has played in introducing the work of numerous foreign authors to
English-speaking audiences. Smith's early work as a translator was
directed towards French literature ( Poems of a
Multimillionaire, by Valery Larbaud, 1955; Selected Writings of Jules Laforgue, 1956); over
the past decade, however, he has been particularly active translating
the work of East European authors. His translations of work by Hungarian
authors brought him that country's Gold Medal of Labor, making Smith the
first American to receive this award. And Smith continues to expand his
translating interests. In the past few years, for example, he has
co-edited two anthologies of contemporary verse, Brazilian Poetry: 1950-1980 (1983) and Dutch Interior: Postwar Poetry of the Netherlands and
Flanders (1984), thus helping to introduce two unique bodies of
writing to a wider audience.
