Edouard Roditi (1910-1992) was an American author of poems and stories and a translator of French, German, Spanish and Turkish work.
Dropping out of Oxford's Classics program in 1929 to pursue his creative interests, he became associated with Paris's Surrealist movement. He contributed to transition and was a partner of Éditions du Sagittaire. He quickly, however, "drifted out" of the movement, citing a disillusionment with automatic writing and the influence of T. S. Eliot as distancing factors.
During and in the years following the Second World War, Roditi worked as a translator and interpreter, serving at a number of important international events, including the Nuremberg war crimes trials and the San Francisco Conference (during which the United Nations was established).
He was also a considerable art historian, and many of his interviews with influential contemporary sculptors and painters are collected in his Dialogues on Art.
His works include:
- Poems for F. (1934)
- Prison within Prison: Three Hebrew Elegies (1941)
- Oscar Wilde (1947)
- Poems 1928-1948 (1949)
- Dialogues on Art (1960, 1980)
- New Hieroglyphic Tales: Prose Poems (1968)
- Emperor of Midnight (1974)
- Meeting with Conrad (1977)
- The Delights of Turkey (1977)
- The Confessions of a Saint (1977)
- Thrice Chosen (1981)
There is an excellent interview with Roditi here which I've drawn from, and a more in-depth biography can be found here.