I will attempt to sketch a tentative picture of this hitherto invisible translator by pairing information from her letters with public records. The British General Register Office records the birth of a Hilda Rosner in Prestwich in 1910. She appears to have been the youngest child in a large Jewish family in Manchester, which still has the second-largest Jewish population in Britain.
1Between 1905 and 1910, seven Rosners were born in Prestwich: Israel (born and died in 1905); Louis (1906); Rosa (1907); Morris (1907); Zena (1909–1910); Samuel (1909–?) and Hilda (1910). There is also a death record for a Hilda Rosner in Macclesfield, Manchester for the year 1978. “Rosner (1905–1910),” UK General Register Office Births and Deaths Index, accessed October 18, 2022, freeBDM.org. A missing death year for a Samuel Rosner (1909–?) is perhaps explained by the Register of British Army Casualty List, which includes a Lance Corporal S. Rosner of the Lancashire Fusiliers, killed in action in 1944.
2“S. Rosner,” British Army Casualty Lists (1939–45), accessed October 18, 2022, findmypast.co.uk. I have not been able to establish for certain whether this was Samuel Rosner, although it is highly likely. Unfortunately, none of these records lists the names of Rosner’s parents, but the birth and death dates of both Hilda and Louis Rosner are supported by details in the New Directions correspondence. The nineteen retained letters from Rosner to New Directions bear the addresses of three proximate locations around Manchester, including Prestwich. There are no letters to or from Rosner after 1974, and between 1978 and 1990, New Directions sent royalty cheques for
Siddhartha to a Mr. Louis Rosner of Bolton, Manchester.
3Frederick R. Martin to Louis Rosner, May 15, 1979. Hesse File, Folder 15. If these records refer to the same people, which seems almost certain, this Louis Rosner was Hilda’s brother.
“Miss Rosner” as she was invariably addressed, had no publication record as a translator. In June 1950 she wrote to Laughlin: “Although translating has been a hobby of mine, and I have translated over 20 short stories and novelettes, this is the first time I have considered the publication of my work.”
4Rosner to Laughlin, June 30, 1950, Hesse File. Folder 1. Confiding in Laughlin, Rosner reflects on New Directions’ fifteenth printing in 1968: “I always associate the translation of
Siddhartha with a stay at a lonely farm in the Lake District, now a good many years ago.”
5Rosner to Laughlin, July 27, 1969, Hesse File. Folder 4. The Lake District, a mountainous region in North West England, is strongly associated with the “Lake Poets,” particularly William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and Robert Southey and is thus a rich source of literary mythology. Rosner made reference to it repeatedly to both Laughlin and MacGregor. Her recollections to the latter in 1971 give an impression of her having specifically chosen the location for her translation. She also refers to the presence of what seem like intimate friends:
When I went to the Lake District to translate
Siddhartha, I was visited by two friends. We made a pact, half in jest half in earnest, to return together in twenty years … and at the end of last October we went once more to stay in the Lake District. We walked once again over the hills, though this time keeping to the lower peaks. We talked about a hundred and one things, including my stay there to translate
Siddhartha. I remember that at the time my inclination after completing it was to put the manuscript in a drawer and forget about it. I had done it for my own interest. But because I was persuaded to seek publication, it has been like throwing a pebble into the sea. It has sent up numerous ripples over the years, more good than bad, and it seems as if ripples from the
Siddhartha translation will continue to reach me for the rest of my life.
6Rosner to MacGregor, January 15, 1971. Hesse File, Folder 9.From the time of Rosner’s first walking the hills of the Lake District with her friends and translating Siddhartha, the book’s sales increased every year for twenty years, precisely the duration of her pact with her friends.