Talvj's birthday

[E. Wayles Browne]

Talvj was the pseudonym of a German-American translator, Slavist, and
novelist. She was born in Germany 26 January 1797 and named Therese
Albertine Louise von Jacob (Jakob). In childhood she lived in
the Ukraine and Russia. In 1824, back in Germany, she began translating
epic songs from Vuk Karadzic's collection from Serbo-Croatian to German.
Having married an American theologian, Edward Robinson, she moved with
him to Massachusetts in 1830. In 1834 she published the first of a series
of articles about the Slavic peoples and literatures; a revised version
came out as a book, _Historical View of the Languages and Literature
of the Slavic Nations; with a Sketch of their Popular Poetry_ (New York:
Putnam, 1850). Her works seem to have given the American reading public
the first more or less reliable information about the Slavs it had ever
seen.
She returned to Germany in 1864 and died there in 1870.
I became interested in Talvj's life and works while researching a
paper for a conference about Jernej Kopitar held in Ljubljana last year;
Kopitar was only one of many European Slavists with whom Talvj
was in contact. 26 January 1997 will mark the 200th anniversary of her
birth. Does anyone know whether any commemorative conference is planned?
I would also be curious to hear about recent publications concerning her.

Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Morrill Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.
tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu (1989 to 1993 was: jn5j at cornella.bitnet //
jn5j at cornella.cit.cornell.edu)