The Silhouette of a Translator: Marian Fell and Russian Culture

Abstract

Marian Fell Vans Agnew (1886–1935), a largely-forgotten American translator of Russian literature, was among the first to introduce Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko to Anglophone audiences. As a teenager, Fell lived in Karaganda, Siberia (nowadays in Kazakhstan) with her family, and this experience inspired her to promote Russian culture after she returned to America. This article investigates Fell’s collaboration with the Charles Scribner’s Sons and Duffield & Co publishing companies, analyses and contextualises Fell’s translations, and examines the critique of her works from the Russian school of criticism to provide an assessment of Fell’s contribution to Russo-American inter-cultural relationships.