{{Short description|American scholar and translator (1933–2021)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}{{Infobox academic | name = Robert Hollander | birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|07|31}} | birth_place = [[Manhattan]], New York City | death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|04|20|1933|07|31}} | death_place = [[Paauilo, Hawaii|Pau'uilo]], Hawaii | education = {{unbulleted list| [[Collegiate School (New York City)|Collegiate School]]| [[Princeton University]]| [[Columbia University]] }} | discipline = [[Western literature|European literature]] | sub_discipline = {{unbulleted list|Medieval [[Italian literature]]|[[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] studies}} | spouse = {{marriage|[[Jean Hollander|Jean Haberman]]|1964|2019 | end = died}} | birth_name = Robert B. Hollander Jr. | image = Robert_Hollander_(1933-2021).jpg | caption = Robert Hollander (early 2000s) | workplaces = [[Princeton University]] }} '''Robert B. Hollander Jr.'''{{Refn|"B" is the full middle name.<ref name=":1"></ref>|name=note|group=lower-alpha}} (July 31, 1933 – April 20, 2021) was an American academic and translator, most widely known for his work on [[Dante Alighieri]] and [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]. He was described by a department chair at [[Princeton University]] as "a pioneer in the creation of digital resources for the study of literature" for his work on the electronic Princeton and [[Dartmouth College|Dartmouth]] Dante projects.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Clack |first=Julie |date=2021-05-13 |title=Robert Hollander, preeminent scholar of Dante, 'pioneer' of the digital humanities and Princeton alumnus, dies at 87 |url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2021/05/13/robert-hollander-preeminent-scholar-dante-pioneer-digital-humanities-and-princeton |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=[[Princeton University]] |language=en}}</ref> In 2008, he and his wife, [[Jean Hollander]], co-received a Gold Florin award from the [[Florence|City of Florence]] for their English translation of Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy]]''.
== Early life and education == Hollander was born in [[Manhattan]] in 1933. His father was a financier and his mother was a nurse.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Robert Hollander, towering scholar of Dante's 'Divine Comedy,' dies at 87 |language=en-US |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-hollander-dead/2021/06/17/c514a38e-ced3-11eb-a7f1-52b8870bef7c_story.html |access-date=2022-06-25 |issn=0190-8286|last=Langer|first=Emily|date=2021-06-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723184405/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-hollander-dead/2021/06/17/c514a38e-ced3-11eb-a7f1-52b8870bef7c_story.html|archive-date=2021-07-23|url-status=live}}</ref> He graduated from [[Collegiate School (New York City)|Collegiate School]] in 1951.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Robert Hollander |url=https://complit.princeton.edu/people/robert-hollander |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623084114/https://complit.princeton.edu/people/robert-hollander |archive-date=2022-06-23 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=Comparative Literature |language=en}}</ref>
Hollander received a B.A. in French and English from [[Princeton University]] in 1955 and a Ph.D from [[Columbia University]]'s department of English and Comparative Literature in 1962.<ref name=":3" /> His dissertation for the latter was on [[Edwin Muir]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hollander (JR.) |first=Robert B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YNRwzgEACAAJ |title=A Textual and Bibliographical Study of The Poems of Edwin Muir |date=1962 |publisher=University Microfilms, IN |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == Hollander began teaching at Princeton University in 1962, eventually taking [[emeritus]] status as a professor in 2003.<ref name=":2" />
In 1982, Hollander began working on the Dartmouth Dante Project, a digital collection of over seventy commentaries on the ''Divine Comedy'' dating back to 1322.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dartmouth Dante Project |url=https://dante.dartmouth.edu/ |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=dante.dartmouth.edu}}</ref> This was one of the first instances of computer technology being used in literature studies, and encouraged more advances in [[digital humanities]]. Forty years later, literature scholar [[Jeffrey Schnapp]] called the project a "go-to tool."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Traub |first=Alex |date=2021-06-08 |title=Robert Hollander, Who Led Readers Into 'The Inferno,' Dies at 87 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/books/robert-hollander-dead.html |url-status=live |access-date=2022-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621031117/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/books/robert-hollander-dead.html |archive-date=June 21, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Hollander was elected president of the [[Dante Society of America]] from 1979 to 1985. He was head of Princeton University's [[Butler College]] from 1991 to 1995 and chair of their Department of Comparative Literature from 1994 to 1998.
In 1997, Robert and Jean Hollander began working on an English translation of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. The couple's ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', ''[[Purgatorio]]'', and ''[[Paradiso]]'' were released in 2000, 2003, and 2007 respectively. The translation was critically acclaimed, with novelist [[Tim Parks]] calling their ''Inferno'' “the finest of them all”<ref name=":0" /> and critic [[Joan Acocella]] calling their entire ''Comedy'' “the best on the market.” Robert's notes to the translation were recognized as being especially thorough, with Acocella estimating that they were "almost thirty times as long as the text."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Acocella |date=2007-08-27 |title=Cloud Nine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/03/cloud-nine |url-status=live |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623084154/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/03/cloud-nine |archive-date=2022-06-23 |access-date=2022-06-25}}</ref>
== Personal life == [[File:Robert and Jean Hollander (2001).jpg|thumb|Robert and Jean Hollander (2001)]] Robert and Jean Hollander ([[Birth name|née]] Haberman) met as graduate students at Columbia University.<ref name=":0" /> They married in 1964 and had three children, one of whom died in infancy. They moved first to [[Princeton, New Jersey]], and then in 1965 moved to {{Convert|10|acres}} of woods at the base of [[Sourland Mountain]] in [[Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey]], where they were longtime residents.<ref>Weil, Lynne. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/08/nyregion/in-person-this-marriage-takes-a-bit-of-explication.html "In Person; This Marriage Takes A Bit of Explication"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 8, 2001. Accessed December 24, 2024. "Robert Hollander, a professor of literature at Princeton University who is a specialist on the medieval Italian authors Giovanni Boccaccio and Dante Alighieri, is collaborating with his wife, Jean, who teaches poetry and literature at the College of New Jersey, to translate the three books of Dante's ''Commedia,'' or ''The Divine Comedy,'' the epic poem about the afterlife.... The Hollanders, who have lived in Hopewell Township since 1965, have two children: Cornelia Vanness Hollander, 33, an environmental reporter in Idaho, and Robert B. Hollander III, 31, who attends medical school at the University of North Carolina."</ref> Jean Hollander died in 2019.<ref name=":1" />
From 1977 onwards, Hollander's former students had an annual tradition of returning to the professor's former classroom and reading from Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' together.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />
== Death and legacy == Hollander died on April 20, 2021, at his son's home in [[Paauilo, Hawaii|Pa'auilo]], Hawaii.<ref name=":0" /> Italian news agency ''[[Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata]]'' noted that his death was only several months away from the 700th anniversary of Dante's own death.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baldini |first=Alessandra |date=2021-06-15 |title=Addio a Robert Hollander, decano dantisti in Usa - Libri - Approfondimenti |url=https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cultura/libri/approfondimenti/2021/06/15/addio-a-robert-hollander-decano-dantisti-in-usa_00c13c01-5790-41f8-8f1b-b21519eba717.html |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=[[Agenzia ANSA]] |language=it}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Hollander received full length obituaries in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> and ''La Voce di New York''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Corradi |first=Nicola |date=15 June 2021 |title=Addio a Robert Hollander, il newyorkese che ha portato Dante tra le strade degli Usa |url=https://lavocedinewyork.com/people/2021/06/15/addio-a-robert-hollander-il-newyorkese-che-ha-portato-dante-tra-le-strade-degli-usa/ |trans-title=Farewell to Robert Hollander, the New Yorker who brought Dante to the streets of the USA. |website=La Voce di New York |language=it |location= |publisher= |access-date=2025-07-15}} </ref>
== Awards and honors == * [[Guggenheim Fellowship]], 1970<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Robert Hollander |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/robert-hollander/ |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> * [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] Senior Fellowship, 1982-83 * Gold medal of the City of [[Florence]], 1988 * [[John Witherspoon]] Award in the Humanities, 1988<ref name=":4" /> * Bronze medal of the City of [[Tours]], 1993 * [[Rockefeller Foundation]] Grant, 1993<ref name=":4" /> * Honorary Citizen of [[Certaldo]], 1997 * International [[Nicola Zingarelli]] Prize, 1999 * Elected to membership in the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], 2005<ref name=":3" /> * Gold Florin award from the City of Florence, 2008<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=2008-05-27 |title=Hollander to be honored in Italy |url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2008/05/27/hollander-be-honored-italy |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=Princeton University |language=en}}</ref>
== Publications == === Books === * ''Allegory in Dante's "Commedia."'' Princeton: [[Princeton University Press]], 1969. * ''Boccaccio's Two Venuses''. New York: [[Columbia University Press]], 1977. * ''Studies in Dante''. Ravenna: Longo, 1980. * ''Il Virgilio dantesco: tragedia nella "Commedia."'' [''The Dantean Virgil: Tragedy in the “Comedy”''] Translated by Anna Maria Castellini & Margherita Frankel. Florence: Olschki, 1983. * ''Boccaccio's Last Fiction: "Il Corbaccio."'' Philadelphia: [[University of Pennsylvania Press]], 1988. * ''Dante's Epistle to Cangrande''. Ann Arbor: [[University of Michigan Press]], 1993. * ''Boccaccio's Dante and the Shaping Force of Satire''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. * ''Dante Alighieri''. Rome: Marzorati-Editalia, 2000. * ''Dante''. New Haven & London: [[Yale University Press]], 2001. (Paperback reprint, 2015.) * ''The Elements of Grammar in Ninety Minutes''. New York: [[Dover Publications]], 2011.
=== Translations === All of the following co-written with Jean Hollander * Dante'', Inferno''. [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]], 2000. ([[Vintage Books|Anchor]] paperback edition: 2002.) * Dante'', Purgatorio''. Doubleday, 2003. (Anchor paperback edition: 2004.) * Dante'', Paradiso''. Doubleday, 2007. (Anchor paperback edition: 2008.)<ref name=":3" />
=== Articles === * Robert Hollander (''Translating Dante into English Again and Again'') and Jean Hollander (''Getting Just a Small Part of it Right''). In: Ronald de Roy (ed.): [https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/35117 ''Divine Comedies for the New Millennium. Recent Dante Translations in America and the Netherlands'']. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2003. pp. 43-54.
== See also == * [[List of English translations of the Divine Comedy|List of English translations of the ''Divine Comedy'']]
== Notes == <references group="lower-alpha" responsive="1"></references>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://dante.dartmouth.edu/ Dartmouth Dante Project] * [https://dante.princeton.edu/ Princeton Dante Project] * [http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader Hollander's commentary to the ''Divine Comedy''] * {{YouTube|id=X2-Ph6Uv1gk|title=The Scandal of Dante's Catholicism for Contemporary Readers Part 1}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollander, Robert}} [[Category:1933 births]] [[Category:2021 deaths]] [[Category:American literary translators]] [[Category:Italian–English translators]] [[Category:Translators of Dante Alighieri]] [[Category:Dante scholars]] [[Category:People from Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey]] [[Category:People from Manhattan]] [[Category:Collegiate School (New York) alumni]] [[Category:Princeton University alumni]] [[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Princeton University faculty]] [[Category:American literary scholars]]