Beloved History Book Gets Translation (A Little History)

[coda]

Beloved History Book Gets Translation
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:57 PM ET



NEW YORK - Seventy years after it was rushed into print, a history book beloved by readers of all ages around the world is finally coming out in English.


E.H. Gombrich, the scholar best known for his classic, "The Story of Art," was a 26-year-old scholar in 1935 when a British publisher asked for his opinion of a children's history book, which was supposed to be translated into Gombrich's native German. Gombrich was bored by the text, and thought he could do better. The publisher, Walter Neurath, took him on, but on one condition: Gombrich had just six weeks to finish the job.


Unemployed at the time, he worked hard on his tour of the ages through the eyes of a child: He set a goal of doing a chapter a day, read passages aloud to his wife, Ilse, and tapped into the narrative voice he had recently developed when he tried to explain his doctoral thesis to the daughter of family friends. What seemed like a rush job was treated by reviewers and the general public as an admirable, accessible summary. "A Little History of the World" was an instant success and has been translated into 18 languages, selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

<snip>


Born in Vienna in 1909, Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich was a teacher at Oxford University and at the University of London and director of London's Warburg Institute. But "A Little History" was written for the untenured ear, suggesting a grown-up placing his hand on a child's shoulder and explaining the facts of life.


<snip>


"A Little History" is a story of progress contending with, and, hopefully, overcoming our darker selves. Gombrich marvels at the discovery of fire and at the development of speech, and becomes positively childlike over the alphabet. "Isn't that amazing?" he writes. "With 26 simple signs, each no more than a couple of squiggles, you can write down anything you like."


more.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050914/ap_en_ot/books_a_little_history;_ylt=AqSQsLl1RfulTiVotsJZ6c4DW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Extend a Hand]

1. thanks

....that will be a 'must have' for me.

[pnorman]

2. You sure got me interested!

Here's what I Googled: http://books.monstersandcritics.com/nonfiction/reviews/article_1042277.php/Book_Review_A_Little_History_of_the_World_by_E._H._Gombrich

It'll be coming out next month, and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com ($16.50). I'd really like to see it also available at Audible.com.

Here's from that Yahoo review:
>
>
As he revised the book over the years, he remained convinced that life could get better, even after the Holocaust, which he calls "such a painful step backwards" and all the more reason "for us to respect and tolerate each other."

But his granddaughter doesn't know what he believed at the end of his life. The historian, who had been ill in his latter years, died just two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"He had this tremendous faith in the civilizing forces, in the power of ideas, that there would always be people who carry on with the Enlightenment," Leonie Gombrich says.

"But he was incredibly depressed by the attacks. After 9-11, he stopped work and never went back."

pnorman