John Addison Porter and Eugene Schuyler 1868
J. A. Porterin Kalevala digitoituna Google Books -palvelussa.
John Addison Porter (1822–1866) worked as a chemistry professor at Yale University. He was a good friend of the Finnish chemical engineer and writer August Fredrik Soldan (1817–1885). Soldan had escaped to the United States from the Russian authorities in 1849. He lived and worked in the United States until 1858.
August Soldan introduced the article on the Kalevala Über das finnische Epos (1845) by Jacob Grimm to J. A. Porter. Porter did not know Finnish and apparently, he never had the chance to visit the Grand Duchy of Finland, but he studied the Kalevala through the German translation by Schiefner. Even after Soldan had returned to Finland, he received letters from Porter with excerpts of Porter’s translations.
John Addison Porter vuonna 1867. Kuva: Wikipedia.
J. A. Porter died in 1886 and he did not complete the translation of the Kalevala. The young and multi-talented Eugene Schuyler (1840–1890) continued Porter’s work. He studied law but worked as a diplomat. Schuyler learned Finnish specifically for the project with the Kalevala, in order to be able to read the original book in its original language.
Eugene Schuyler managed to complete Porter’s work with the Kalevala and he wrote an introduction and a chapter in which he presents his analysis of the work as well. Schuyler’s book was published in New York in 1868 and it was called Selections from the Kalevala. The book comprises translations of the third and the fourth poems as well as parts of the first and the second poems.
Selections from the Kalevala was very well received in the United States and the second editions was printed as soon as in 1873. While Eugene Schuyler worked as a consul in Tallinn and as a secretary at the American embassy in St. Petersburg, he had a chance to visit Finland.
The diplomat Schuyler became a valued cultural ambassador for Finland. Ernest John Moyne writes:
Eugene Schuyler. Kuva: Wikipedia.
“He met with several professors from the University of Helsinki, who gave him their literary works in Finnish and Swedish, and thus, he had a representative collection of Finnish literature when he returned to St. Petersburg. Later on, Schuyler contributed to the knowledge about Finland and Finnish literature in America, by donating Finnish books to different university libraries in the United States. In the autumn 1884, he donated a valuable collection of approximately six hundred books to the library at Cornell University. This collection included for example the books about Finnish folk poetry and Finnish philology that were donated to Schuyler.”
Cecilia af Forselles: “Englanninkieliset käännökset. Kalevalan muuttuvat ylikansalliset tehtävät” – Kalevala Maailmalla. Helsinki: SKS. 2012.
Ernest John Moyne: “Kalevalan käännökset Amerikassa” – Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 29. Helsinki: WSOY. 1949.
Wright, Arthur W.: “Review of Prof. John A. Porter’s Translations of the ‘Kalevala’ ” – New Englander and Yale Review Volume 0027 Issue 103 (April 1868).
Two Porters
There are two professors named Porter, not related, who are connected to the Kalevala translations in English.