Andres Pranspill
Andres Pranspill (also used the name forms Andres Pranspiel, Andrew Pranspill, 9 September 1887 – 6 June 1968) was an emigre Estonian writer.
He was born on Liudsepa farm at Helme in Valga County. In 1902, he left his home parish for St Petersburg. From Russia, he moved on to the USA. He acquired secondary education in New York and remained in the USA. There, he held different jobs: he was a carpenter, a sailor, a medical assistant, working at the same time as a non-staff correspondent and columnist for newspapers published in Estonia.
In New York, Pranspill published Wälis Eesti (‘Foreign Estonia’, 1926), a collection on cultural history with versatile content. In 1928, Pranspill visited Estonia. In the same year, Ameerika antoloogia (‘American Anthology’), a collection of American literature compiled and translated by him, was published in Tartu. Along with Johannes Semper, Andres Pranspill was the first to introduce Walt Whitman’s poetry to Estonian readers.
As a fruit of decades-long translation work, the English-language collection Estonian Anthology was published in the United States in 1956. The collection was compiled and published by Pranspill, partly also translated by him. Along with the translations of Faehlmann, Kreutzwald, Eisen, Juhan Liiv, Tammsaare, Tuglas, Under and other well-known Estonian authors, the book also contains Pranspill’s own creations, an anonymous piece of writing ‘The dictatorship of the proletariat’, an excerpt of Tartu Peace Treaty, folk songs, riddles and proverbs.
Andres Pranspill died in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of 80.
L. P. (Translated by I. A.)
Anthologies
Ameerika antoloogia. Tartu: A. Pranspill, 1928. 520 lk.
Estonian Anthology: intimate stories of life, love, labor and war of the Estonian people. Compiled, translated and published by A. Pranspill. Translations by W. K. Matthews. Edited by Milton Millhauser. Milford [Connecticut]: A. Pranspill, 1956. 320 lk.
