Arthur Livingston was an American professor of Romance languages and literatures, translator, and publisher, who played a significant role in introducing a number of European writers to readers in the United States in the period between World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Biography

Arthur Livingston earned his A.B. at Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 in 1904, and received a doctorate in Romance languages from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1910.

Livingston taught Italian at Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

 (1908-1909) and at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 (1910-1911). He was associate professor of Romance Languages at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 (1911-1917).

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 Arthur Livingston was an editor with the Foreign Press Bureau of the Committee on Public Information

Committee on Public Information

The Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I...

. After the war he co-founded with Paul Kennaday and Ernest Poole

Ernest Poole

Ernest Cook Poole was an American novelist.He was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 23, 1880, and graduated from Princeton University in 1902...

 the Foreign Press Service, which represented foreign authors in English-language markets. He persuaded many American publishers that it was possible to create a market for the work of European authors in the United States. Livingston helped introduce to the United States the work of Octave Aubry

Octave Aubry

-Life:Aubry, Ernest Seillière, Jean Tharaud, René Grousset and Robert d'Harcourt were the five members of the Académie française elected on 1 February 1946, to replace the many vacancies left by the Nazi occupation of Europe...

, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was a Spanish realist novelist writing in Spanish, a screenwriter and occasional film director....

, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese

Giuseppe Antonio Borgese

Giuseppe Antonio Borgese was an Italian writer, journalist and literary critic.-Biography:Borgese was born in Polizzi Generosa, near Palermo...

, Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...

, Claude Farrère

Claude Farrère

Claude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone , was a French author of novels set in such exotic locations as Istanbul, Saigon, and Nagasaki. One of his novels, Les civilisés won the Prix Goncourt for 1905. He was elected for a chair at the Académie Française on 26 March 1935...

, Guglielmo Ferrero

Guglielmo Ferrero

Guglielmo Ferrero was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome . Ferrero devoted his writings to liberalism....

, André Maurois

André Maurois

André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog was a French author.-Life:Maurois was born in Elbeuf and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen, both in Normandy. Maurois was the son of Ernest Herzog, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and Alice Herzog...

, Alberto Moravia

Alberto Moravia

Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....

, Gaetano Mosca

Gaetano Mosca

Gaetano Mosca was an Italian political scientist, journalist and public servant. He is credited with developing the Theory of Elitism and the doctrine of the Political class and is one of the three members constituting the Italian School of Elitists together with Vilfredo Pareto and Robert...

, Giovanni Papini

Giovanni Papini

Giovanni Papini was an Italian journalist, essayist, literary critic, poet, and novelist.-Early life:...

, Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....

, Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...

, Giuseppi Prezzolini, and Guido da Verona.

In 1926 Livingston returned to academia, becoming Professor of Romance Languages at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1935.

Personal life and views

Livingston was strongly opposed to fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 and was in correspondence with a number of anti-fascist intellectuals in Italy, like Laura de Bosis. His political position created difficulties for him at Columbia University.

Arthur Livingston had a notable liaison with the actress Eleanora Duse.

Published work

As a scholar, Livingston was the author of two book-length studies of Gian Francesco Busenello.

He was better known for his superb translations, which are sometimes said to be more readable than the originals. Livingston translated three works by Octave Aubry

Octave Aubry

-Life:Aubry, Ernest Seillière, Jean Tharaud, René Grousset and Robert d'Harcourt were the five members of the Académie française elected on 1 February 1946, to replace the many vacancies left by the Nazi occupation of Europe...

, nine works of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was a Spanish realist novelist writing in Spanish, a screenwriter and occasional film director....

, and single works by Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...

 (The Conduct of Life, 1924), Claude Farrère

Claude Farrère

Claude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone , was a French author of novels set in such exotic locations as Istanbul, Saigon, and Nagasaki. One of his novels, Les civilisés won the Prix Goncourt for 1905. He was elected for a chair at the Académie Française on 26 March 1935...

, Guglielmo Ferrero

Guglielmo Ferrero

Guglielmo Ferrero was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome . Ferrero devoted his writings to liberalism....

, and Alberto Moravia

Alberto Moravia

Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....

, as well as The One-Act Plays of Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...

(Dutton, 1928). His four-volume translation of Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....

's 1916 magnum opus as The Mind and Society

The Mind and Society

The Mind and Society is the English title of the seminal sociological work Trattato di Sociologia Generale by the Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto ....

(1935) contributed to a Pareto vogue in the 1930s in American intellectual circles that was promoted by writers like Bernard DeVoto

Bernard DeVoto

Bernard Augustine DeVoto was an American historian and author who specialized in the history of the American West.- Life and work :He was born in Ogden, Utah...

.

A posthumous collection of Livingston's criticism was published in 1950 as Essays on Modern Italian Literature.