Background
His father was a Sephardic Jewish native of Istanbul, but American citizen.
His father was a Sephardic Jewish native of Istanbul, but American citizen.
He was educated in England at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford, and at the University of Chicago. Édouard Roditi studied in France, England, Germany and the United States of America.
Roditi published several volumes of poetry, short stories, and art criticism. He was also well regarded as a translator, and translated into English original works from French, German, Spanish, Danish and Turkish. He was for instance one of the first translators of Saint-John Perse in English in 1944.
In 1961, he translated Yaşar Kemal"s epic novel İnce Memed (1955) under the English title Memed, My Hawk.
This book was instrumental in introducing the famed Turkish writer to the English-speaking world. Memed, My Hawk is still in print.
In addition to his poetry and translations, Roditi is perhaps best remembered for the numerous interviews he conducted with modernist artists, including Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Oskar Kokoschka, Philippe Derome and Hannah Höchurch Several of these have been assembled in the collection Dialogues on Artist