Mister Workman — former newsboy, mister Workman — millionaire

Abstract

This article discusses the little-known text of M. A. Gershenzon, Soviet children’s writer, translator and editor. In 1927 he translated and revised the novel by German writer H. Dominik “John Workman. From newsboy to millionaire” (1909–1925). The article examines the reasons why it was expected, considering all Gershenzon’s works, that the novel will appeal to
him. The author of the article analyzes the goals and results of Gershenzon’s strategy as the translator: in this case it consisted more than in careful editing and serious alteration of the plot of the book written by an ideologically
distant author. The analysis involves eleven issues of Pioneer magazine (1927), where the translated novel “John Workman” had been published and also accompanied by an avant-garde photographic design by the artist G. Berendhof. The work of M. A. Gershenzon is compared both with the original text by H. Dominik and with the translation by Y. Iwask (“John
Workman”, 1933, published by Estonian Russian-language publishing house “Argonauts”).

Keywords: H. Dominik, M. A. Gershenzon, Y. Ivask, V. Shklovsky, translation, technique, engineering, class struggle, propaganda, America, Germany, Estonia, Pioneer magazine, constructivism