American ghostwriter and translator of French and Spanish literature
Herma Briffault, born Herma Hoyt (1898–1981) was an American
ghostwriter and translator of French and Spanish literature.[1]
Life
Herma Hoyt was born in
Reedsville, Ohio on May 4, 1898. In the 1920s, she went to live in
Paris, divorcing her first husband J. Eugene Mullins. In 1931, she married the French-born anthropological writer
Robert Briffault,[1][2] and started a career as a ghost writer. She wrote eighteen books under other people's names, including a 1928 biography of the hotelier
César Ritz under the name of his widow, Marie-Louise Ritz.[1]
The pair endured the
Nazi occupation of Paris as enemy aliens under house arrest. Robert Briffault died in 1948. Around that time, Briffault began working with
Vilhjalmur Stefansson to research the history of Russian-American attempts to join
Alaska and
Siberia by
telegraph.[3] She also embarked on her translation career.
Briffault worked as an assistant editor for Las Americas Publishing Company from 1957 to 1969. At the end of her life, she was living in
New York City, where she died at
St. Vincent's Hospital on August 13, 1981.[1]
Life is Sometimes Like That. Translated from the French by
Jacques Varmel. London: Commodore Press, 1946.
The Illusionist. Translated from the French Le rempart des Béguines by
Françoise Mallet-Joris. 1952
The sea wall. Translation of the French Barrage contre le Pacifique by
Marguerite Duras. New York: The New American Library, 1952.
Into the Labyrinth. Translated from the French Le Rempart des béguines by Françoise Mallet-Joris. London: Secker & Warburg, 1953.
The paradise below the stairs. Translated from the French Le vert paradis by
André Brincourt. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1952.
The joker: a novel. Translated from the French Le Gaffeur by
Jean Malaquais. New York: Doubleday, 1954.
The Red Room. Translated from the French Chambre rouge by
Françoise Mallet-Joris. New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1956.
House of Lies. Translated from the French Les Mensonges by Françoise Mallet-Joris. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957
Andromache. Translated from the French by
Jean Racine. New York: Barron's Educational Series, 1957.
Albert Camus: the invincible summer. Translated from the French Albert Camus; ou, L'invincible été. New York: George Braziller, 1958.
The pretentious young ladies: a one-act comedy in prose. Translated from the French Les Précieuses ridicules by
Molière. New York: Barron's Educational Series, 1959.
Café Céleste. Translated from the French L'Empire Céleste by Françoise Mallet-Joris. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959.
Saint-Exupéry. A biography. Translated from the French Saint-Exupéry by
Marcel Migeo. London: Macdonald, 1961.
Virginia Woolf. Translated from the French Virginia Woolf par elle-même by
Monique Nathan. New York: Grove Press, 1961.
The Favourite. Translated from the French Les Personnages by Françoise Mallet-Joris. London: W. H. Allen, 1962.
The Medici Fountain: a novel. Translated from the French Les Personnages by
Joseph Kessel. London: A. Barker, 1963
Beyond Time. Translated from the French Hors du temps by
Michel Siffre. London: Chatto & Windus, 1965
(with Renaud Bruce) Interior Exile. Translated from the French and Spanish L'Exil intérieur. by
Michel Siffre. London: Peter Owen, 1965
(with Helen Beauclark et al.) Earthly paradise : an autobiography. Translated from the French Colette : autobiographie tirée des œuvres de Colette by
Colette. London: Secker & Warburg, 1966
The pure and the impure. Translated from the French Pur et l'impur by Colette. New York: Farrar, 1966.
Signs and wonders. Translated from the French Les signes et les prodiges by Françoise Mallet-Joris. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967.
The Witches: Three ages of sorcery. Translated from the French Trois âges de la nuit by Françoise Mallet-Joris. London: W. H. Allen, 1970.
Ho Chi Minh and his Vietnam: a personal memoir. Translated from the French Face à Ho chi Minh by
Jean Sainteny. 1972.
My Prison. Translated from the Spanish Mi cárcel by Isabel Álvarez de Toledo y Maura, Duchess of Medina Sidonia. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.