EN

Barbara Mooyaart - Doubleday

Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday translated Anne Frank's diary into English.

Person

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam
  • Barbara Mary Mooyaart - Doubleday
  • Born on: March 11, 1919
  • Born in: Milton, Kent, Engeland
  • Died on: July 31, 2017
  • Died in: Amersfoort, Nederland

Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday met haar twee oudste zonen, begin jaren vijftig

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam

Rechthebbende(n) onbekend

Barbara Doubleday was raised in Sittingbourne, in the south-east of England. She was the youngest child of Leslie Doubleday (1887-1975) and Nora Doubleday-Foster (1889-1975). She had two brothers and a sister: Garth Leslie (1913-2012), Gordon Vincent (1914-1993) and Phyllis Nora (1915-2017).[1]

During World War II, she met Eduard Mooyaart (1921-1994),[2] a Surabaya-born Dutch army pilot, serving in the British Royal Air Force (RAF). They married on 29 January 1945 in Sittingbourne. In 1946 they left for the Netherlands, where they settled in Amsterdam. Three years later, they moved to Amersfoort. Together they had three sons.[3]

Involvement in the translation of the diary

In late 1950 or early 1951, Barbara was approached by Matthew Barry Sullivan,[4] a friend of hers who worked for the British publisher Vallentine-Mitchell & Co. He asked her if she had read Anne Frank's diary and whether she would be interested in translating it into English. Barbara translated a few pages as a trial. The publisher initially wrote back that this trial translation made Anne seem too old for her age. She was asked to do a second trial translation. Later, the publisher reconsidered the earlier comment, having come to the conclusion that Anne actually had a very mature writing style for a teenager.[5]

Despite having no experience as a translator, Barbara was chosen by Vallentine-Mitchell & Co. in early March 1951 to translate the entire diary.[6] According to herself, one of the reasons she was chosen was the small age difference with Anne. She would therefore have a better understanding of the perceptions and tone of a teenager than other potential translators.[3] The diary had previously been translated into English at Otto Frank's request by Rosey Pool, Anne Frank's former English teacher at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam. But her translation was deemed unsuitable for publication.[7] Barbara did not recall ever seeing this translation. She translated using a Dutch edition of Het Achterhuis ('The Secret Annex') purchased by herself.[8]

The publisher asked her to finish the translation within two months, but she replied that she would need at least three months for this.[9] Besides the translation work, she was looking after her two young children. Combining this, she found the biggest challenge of the job. She translated about three diary pages a day, which she usually did in the afternoon and evening when her children were asleep.[10]

She was introduced to Otto Frank so that he could give her an insight into his daughter's character and outlook on life. He gave her a tour of the Secret Annex and also visited her in Amersfoort.[11] They regularly discussed her translation work together. Barbara recalled that Otto placed great importance on her correctly listing the names of the various cats mentioned by Anne in her diary.[12] When she had fully translated the diary, she sent a copy to Otto on 23 June 1951.[13] He sent her back a list of comments on 8 July 1951.[14]

A few months later, she was also asked to translate a few diary pages that had not been included in the Dutch edition. These were passages in which Anne writes about her first experience with menstruation and her desire to touch her friend Jacqueline van Maarsen's breasts.[15]

The English translation of the diary was published in 1952 in England and the United States as The Diary of a Young Girl. Barbara said she had no further interest in a career as a translator after that. She only did a few translation jobs for Otto. For instance, she translated Anne's short stories that had been published in Dutch as Weet je nog? Verhalen en sprookjes ('Do You Remember? Fables and Short Stories').[16] In 1963 she was also asked to translate a brochure for the Anne Frank House.[17]

Barbara had never signed an official contract for the translation of the diary. She saw it as an act of friendship. It was agreed that she would receive 60 British pounds for her work, which was increased to 100 pounds after the sale of her translation to US publisher Doubleday & Co.[18] She received no compensation for the more than 50 translations into other languages based on her translation.[19]

This also applied to the play The Diary of Anne Frank, for which Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett used her translation. The Otto Frank Archive contains several letters from Barbara addressed to Otto expressing her feelings on the matter. A form requesting her to give up her copyrights fell particularly ill with her. She felt wronged and disrespected by this and decided not to sign it. In January 1959, she wrote to experience an estrangement between Otto and her, but when they met again later that year in May, they resolved this together.[20] Her friendship with Otto continued and, after his death in 1980, she also kept in touch with Fritzi Frank.[21]

Source personal data.[22] Addresses: Surinameplein 92hs, Amsterdam (1946), Buys Ballotstraat 37, Amersfoort (1949).[22]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ancestry: Sir Leslie Doubleday.
  2. ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, archiefkaarten, toegang 30238, inv. nr. 570: Archiefkaart Eduard Mooijaart; Online Begraafplaatsen, Begraafplaats Rusthof, Leusden: Barbara Mary Doubleday, partner Mooyaart.
  3. a, b Irene van der Linde, ‘Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 11 maart 1919 – 31 juli 2017’, in: De Groene Amsterdammer, 141(32), 9 augustus 2017.
  4. ^ Paul Trewhela, ‘Obituary: Matthew Sullivan’, in: The Independent, 21 september 1997.
  5. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Getuigenarchief, Mooyaart-Doubleday, Barbara, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday door Teresien da Silva en David de Jongh, 2008, 00:00:05-00:02:10.
  6. ^ AFS, Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), Otto Frank Archief (OFA), reg. code OFA_132.1: Brief van Vallentine Mitchell and Co. aan Otto Frank, 8 maart 1951.
  7. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_132.1: Brieven van Otto Frank aan Vallentine Mitchell and Co., 21 en 22 november 1950.
  8. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:07:00-00:08:20.
  9. ^ Ibidem, 00:02:35-00:03:05.
  10. ^ Marian Vreugdenhil, ‘Originele Engelse script dagboek Anne Frank overgedragen’, in: Amersfoort Nu, 28 september 2011, p. 5.
  11. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_132.1: Brief van Otto Frank aan J.N. Japp, Vallentine Mitchell and Co., 21 april 1951; AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:05:00-00:05:18.
  12. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:18:00-00:18:55.
  13. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_132.1: Brief van Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday aan Otto Frank, 23 juni 1951; Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday donated her first handwritten English translation Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday to the Anne Frank House in 2011: AFS, AFC, reg. code B_Dagboek_I_011; Marian Vreugdenhil, ‘Originele Engelse script dagboek Anne Frank overgedragen’, in: Amersfoort Nu, 28 september 2011, p. 5.
  14. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_132.1: Brief van Otto Frank aan Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 8 juli 1951.
  15. ^ She herself had no recollection of these particular passages. She believed the extra pages were about music: AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:21:16-00:25:10.
  16. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_101.1: Brief van Johannes Kleiman aan Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 2 september 1952.
  17. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_336.2: Notulen bestuursvergadering van de Anne Frank Stichting, 9 mei 1963.
  18. ^ The name resemblance seems coincidental; there was no direct family connection between Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday and the publishing house Doubleday & Co.
  19. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:29:40-00:30:18.
  20. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_132.2: Brieven van Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday aan Otto Frank, 16 januari 1956, 11 januari 1959 en 28 mei 1959; AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:33:15-00:36:34.
  21. ^ AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_65: Condoleancebrief Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday aan Fritzi Frank, 22 augustus 1980; AFS, Getuigenarchief, interview Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday, 00:51:11-00:51:48.
  22. a, b SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, archiefkaarten, toegang 30238, inv. nr. 195: Archiefkaart Barbara Mary Doubleday; Online Begraafplaatsen, Begraafplaats Rusthof, Leusden: Barbara Mary Doubleday.