Brian Hooker (poet)

William Brian Hooker (2 November 1880, New York City – 28 December 1946, New London, Connecticut) was an American poet, educator, lyricist, and librettist. He is most famous for co-writing the libretto and lyrics for Rudolf Friml's 1925 operetta "The Vagabond King", and is especially noted his 1923 English translation of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac", especially prepared for actor Walter Hampden. The translation, written in blank verse rather than the Alexandrines of the original play, was highly acclaimed as being one of the finest translations of a play in verse into English, and for many years, until Anthony Burgess published his own translation, was virtually the only English rendition of the play used. An unusual aspect of Hooker's translation is that it never uses the word "panache" at all, perhaps because Hooker realized that its double meaning in the play's final scene is untranslatable into English (the word means "plume" in French in addition to its usual definition, which is, roughly, "bravery" or "daring").

References

*Green, Stanley (1976), "Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre", Dodd, Mead, p. 195. ISBN 0396072216
*Yardley, Jonathan (2005) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55751-2005Feb1?language=printer 'Cyrano,' Gaining in the Translation] , "Washington Post", February 2, 2005, p. C01. Accessed 8 September 2008.

External links

[http://www.harpers.org/subjects/BrianHooker Selected poetry, fiction and essays by Brian Hooker] , from the archives of "Harper's Magazine".