Mein Kampf in English

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Since the early 1930s, the history of

Eher Verlag
.

Since the war, the 1943 Ralph Manheim translation has been the most commonly published translation, though Manheim later expressed reservations about his translation, and other versions have continued to circulate.

Dugdale abridgement

Cherry Kearton.[citation needed] However, the firm found it difficult to interest publishers in the 782-page book by the leader of what was then an obscure splinter party in Germany. Even after the elections of September 1930, when the Nazi Party became the second largest party in the Reichstag, publishers were cautious about investing in a translation, due to the Great Depression.[3]

The same election inspired

Paternoster Library.[7]

In the United States, Houghton Mifflin secured the rights to the Dugdale abridgement on 29 July 1933.[8] The only differences between the American and British versions are that the title was translated My Struggle in the UK and My Battle in America; and that Dugdale is credited as translator in the US edition, while the British version withheld his name.[9] The original price was $3.00 (equivalent to $71 in 2023).[10]

In January 1937, Houghton Mifflin issued a second edition, the first having sold out. The price was lowered to $2.50 (equivalent to $53 in 2023). The publishers replaced the old dust jacket featuring Hitler giving his

German revolutions of 1848–49 and the Weimar Republic, while the Nazis had returned to the black, white, red of the German Empire.[9] Thompson's quotation was also objected to, as she had been expelled from the Reich in 1934 after writing unflattering accounts of Hitler.[11] The affair lasted into March 1937. Houghton Mifflin agreed to change the yellow to white, but it is unknown whether the Dorothy Thompson quotation was ever removed.[12]

Sales and royalties

The first printing was a deluxe 18-shilling (equivalent to £68 in 2021) book that sold out its 5,000 copies and was never reprinted. The popular edition cost 3s. 6d. (equivalent to £14 in 2021) and each print run was about 1,750 copies. Below is a table of available sales figures of the Dugdale abridgment in the United Kingdom. "On hand" here means on hand at the beginning of the year. The commission was payable to Curtis Brown as literary agent, and the tax to Inland Revenue.[13]

Year On hand Editions Printed Sold Gross royalties Commission Tax Net royalties
1933 0 1–8 17,250 15,687 £350 £70 £84.7s. £195.13/RM2,611
1934 1,275 9–10 3,500 4,695 £7.1.2 £15.4.4 £58.5.6/ RM 715
1935 79 11–12 3,500 2,989 £74.18.6 £14 £7.3 £52.15.1/RM653
1936 590 13–16 7,000 3,633 £243.14.1 £48.14.10 £36.17.5 £158.1.1/ RM1,941
1937 2,055 17–18 7,000 8,648 £173.4 £35.6 £23.3 £114.4 /RM1424
1938 16,442 19–22 25,500 53,738* £1,037.23 £208 £193.91 £635.68 /RM 7410
Total 20,441 22 63,750 89,390 £1,884 £390 £344 £1213 /RM 14,754
  • In 1938, "slightly over 8,000 were colonial sales".[14]

The first printing of the U.S. Dugdale edition was 7,603 copies, of which 290 were given away as complimentary gifts. The royalty on the first printing in the U.S. was 15% or $3,206.45 total. Curtis Brown, literary agent, took 20%, or $641.20 total, and the

IRS took $384.75, leaving Eher Verlag $2,180.37 or RM 5,668.[15]

6 mon. ending Sold
Mar. 1934 5,178
Sept. 1934 457
Mar. 1935 245
Sept. 1935 362
Mar. 1936 359
Sept. 1936 575
Jan. 1937 140
Total 7,316

The January 1937 second printing yielded gross royalties of $1,311.38. Once the commission to Curtis Brown and corporation taxes were deducted, this left $891.74 or RM2,318.52.[16]

6 mon. ending Sold
March 1937 1,170
Sept. 1937 1,451
March 1938 876
Total 3,497

There were three separate printings from August 1938 to March 1939, totaling 14,000; sales totals by 31 March 1939, were 10,345. This yielded gross royalties of $3,879.38 and a new of $2,637.98 or RM6,858.74.[16]

Translations

Murphy translation

The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda commissioned James Vincent Murphy, who had been employed to make English translations of Hitler's speeches and other items, to begin an English translation of Mein Kampf in late 1936 and it was finished by the fall of 1937.[17] However, the Propaganda Ministry cancelled the project and sequestered all copies of the manuscript. Murphy was beginning to be seen as "unreliable" by the government and was dismissed from his position at the Ministry. As the international situation worsened in 1938, Murphy sent his wife and children to England to live with her mother. They arrived in Southampton in June, while James finished up the rest of his commissioned translation work in Berlin and came to London in early September.[18]

In London, Murphy contacted his literary agent, Robert Somerville, and they found an interested publisher in Heinemann. However, they realized that translation rights in the United Kingdom and its dependencies already belonged to Hurst and Blackett. Furthermore, they did not have a manuscript in hand. So Murphy was convinced to return to Germany to secure both a copy of the manuscript and permission to publish it, but on the date he was scheduled to fly to Berlin, he was denied an entry visa and told he would be wasting his time. Therefore, his wife, Mary, decided to make the trip, finally crossing the Channel on 6 November 1938. In Berlin she was unable to schedule any appointments with the Propaganda Ministry until 10 November. This meant she was in Berlin during the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9 November.[19] The next day she met with Heinrich Bohle at the Propaganda Ministry, but could not get anywhere. She pursued other contacts within the Ministry but came up empty handed. Finally, without any more money and living with her ex-house keeper, she decided to visit one of James' former secretaries whom he had employed as a typist. To her great relief, she still had one of the handwritten copies of the James Murphy translation. She left Berlin on 20 November.[20]

Meanwhile, Hurst and Blackett had not yet decided whether to publish Murphy's manuscript, or any translation at all. On 21 November 1938, they received a message from Eher Verlag stating that they had not authorized Murphy to publish his edition in England, reiterating that Hurst and Blackett would be the publisher if any edition was ever released in England.

Reichskanzlei in February 1939, the point had been rendered moot.[22] Murphy's translation hit the stores in the United Kingdom on 20 March 1939.[23]

While neither Hitler nor any of the German government officials endorsed the Murphy translation, they ultimately took no action against it and, by May 1939, Eher Verlag was inquiring about possible royalties. They were told that royalties would only be paid after six months in print. However, by then war had broken out between the two countries and copyright relations severed.[24]

Because so many records were destroyed during the war, accurate sales figures on Murphy's translation are difficult to establish. Robert Sommerfeld reported that approximately 32,000 copies were sold by August 1939. There was also an illustrated edition and a serial edition in eight parts. It has been conjectured that 150,000–200,000 copies were sold in total. Murphy, for his part, did not feel he was adequately remunerated, being paid £250 up front and £150 six months later. The publishers did not feel the need to pay him any more after they received a letter from Germany prior to publication, stating he had already been paid for his efforts when he was employed by the Propaganda Ministry.[25]

Stalag translation

The German Government used 90% of James Vincent Murphy's rough draft translation of Mein Kampf to form the body of an edition to be distributed in the UK once Operation Sea Lion was completed. This 'Operation Sea Lion Edition' was finalized and printed in the summer of 1940. Once the invasion was called off by Adolf Hitler most copies were distributed to English speaking POW camps. Very few copies survived after the war.[26]

Reynal and Hitchcock translation

After the

New School of Social Research were in the midst of preparing such a translation. Reynal & Hitchcock approached both this committee and Houghton Mifflin about publishing the translation under a license.[27]

However, on 8 December 1938,

stateless person in 1925, could not have transferred his copyrights to Eher Verlag and thence to Houghton Mifflin. A conference was held at the office of Reynal & Hitchcock on 12 December 1938, with General Edward J. Stackpole and William Soskin, executive director of Stackpole Sons, to discuss the matter. Stackpole claimed that Reynal & Hitchcock said that if Stackpole could put the work in the public domain they would not be interested in publishing their own translation. Reynal & Hitchcock claimed to have stated that they had already been working on the project for months, had a translation in hand, backed by a committee of prominent scholars, and were in the process of negotiating the rights with Houghton Mifflin.[28] In any event, Stackpole and Soskin took this to mean that they were allowed to carry on with their translation unperturbed until they were visited at their office by Curtice Hitchcock who informed him that they were going ahead with their translation, which was going to be under license from the exclusive copyright holder, Houghton Mifflin.[29]

The agreement between Reynal and Hitchcock and Houghton Mifflin was finalized on 18 February 1939 and the book was available in stores on 28 February. The contract stipulated that Reynal and Hitchcock would pay Houghton Mifflin 15% royalty on each $3 copy. After one year, Reynal and Hitchcock had the option of releasing a cheaper edition, and the agreement itself would expire after three years. Houghton Mifflin would print and bind the book at its

Riverside Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was allowed to keep publishing the My Battle abridgement. Notably, Houghton Mifflin agreed to pay all the expenses for seeking a copyright injunction, and subsequent legal fees would be split between the two companies.[30]

Franklin D. Roosevelt's copy of the Reynal and Hitchcock translation (The International Museum of World War II).

To counter Stackpole's claims that sales of its translation would go to

refugees. However, no assets could be touched for the Reynal and Hitchcock edition, including royalties or charitable donations, until the legal issues were settled. As it happened, the legal battle did not finally end until 25 October 1941. After deducting $11,500 for legal costs, Houghton Mifflin was prepared to give $11,500 to Curtis Brown to pay to their client, Eher Verlag. Before this could be done, however, war broke out between the United States and Germany and Eher never received any royalties from this edition.[31] Profits from the book went to a charity, Children's Crusade for Children, which helped refugees. Included in this was the initial $35,000 for administrative and promotional costs, which also went to the child refugees.[32]

As far as Hitler's royalties went, they were governed by the

IRS.[33] Today, the profits and proceeds are given to various charities.[34]

The members of the New School committee that edited and translated the book were

Sidney B. Fay, John Gunther, Carlton J. H. Hayes, Graham Hutton, Alvin Johnson, William L. Langer, Walter Millis, R. de Roussy de Sales, and George N. Shuster.[35]

The book was translated from the two volumes of the first German edition (1925 and 1927), with annotations appended noting any changes made in later editions, which were deemed "not as extensive as popularly supposed".[36] The translation was made with a view to readability rather than in an effort to rigidly reproduce Hitler's sometimes idiosyncratic German form.[36] Significantly, the translation marked in the text areas that had been left out of the Dugdale abridgment.[37]

The text was heavily annotated for an American audience with biographical and historical details derived largely from German sources.[36] As the translators deemed the book "a propagandistic essay of a violent partisan", which "often warps historical truth and sometimes ignores it completely", the tone of many of these annotations reflected a conscious attempt to provide "factual information that constitutes an extensive critique of the original".[38]

Apart from the editorial committee there was also a "sponsoring committee" of prominent individuals including

Stephen S. Wise.[39]

Stackpole translation and controversy

The Stackpole edition was translated and printed in a hurry between December 1938 and February 1939. The translation job was left to Barrows Mussey, who requested anonymity.[40] On the eve of the publication of both translations on 28 February 1939, Stackpole had invested $21,000 in the project and had an initial print run of 15,000 copies.[41] Also on that date Houghton Mifflin's motion for a temporary injunction against Stackpole publishing their edition was denied by Judge Alfred Conkling Coxe Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Coxe reasoned that "The Defendants Stackpole have raised questions of title and validity which are not free from doubt; the facts are in dispute; and the issues cannot properly be determined on affidavit."[42]

Houghton Mifflin appealed to the

United States Supreme Court.[45] Until the Supreme Court granted certiorari, Stackpole was now enjoined from selling its translation of Mein Kampf and Houghton Mifflin exercised its copyright by securing injunctions against Mein Kampf: An Unexpurgated Digest and Mein Kampf: A New Unexpurgated Translation Condensed with Critical Comments and Explanatory Notes.[46][47]

The Supreme Court denied Stackpole's petition for a writ of certiorari (that is, the Court declined to hear the appeal) on 23 October 1939,

parent company, on 25 October 1941.[48][49]

In its publicity campaign for the book, Stackpole set up a committee of prominent individuals who were to handle the funds that sales of the book would provide to refugee charities. This committee included:

Louis Hacker, Bernson Y. Landis, Allen Heely, Milton Winternitz and Edward Smith Parons.[50]

During the short period it was in print from 28 February – 9 June 1939, Stackpole had sold 12,000 copies of its translation. No records show whether any profits were ever turned over to any charity.[51] The translation remains a rare and valuable artifact. WorldCat lists 133 copies worldwide.[52]

The case set a

legal precedent in US copyright law, as it established that stateless individuals have the same copyright status as other foreigners, a point not addressed in the Copyright Act of 1909 or in previous litigation.[53][54][55]

Manheim translation

The Reynal and Hitchcock translation went out of print in 1942. No reason was given, but it was speculated that it was because Houghton Mifflin did not want to share profits with Reynal and Hitchcock, as well as a desire to produce a cheaper, less bulky version, without the elaborate notes and commentary that the Reynal and Hitchcock translation had. In 1943 Houghton Mifflin published their own edition, translated by Ralph Manheim, which they still publish.[56][57]

The plates of the James Murphy translation having been destroyed by

West German government. Nevertheless, Hurst & Blackett still possessed the copyright for the British and Commonwealth market. The new edition was finally published in Britain in an intentionally expensive hardcover edition in 1969. A soft-cover 1972 edition at £1.95 was also controversial, as it was seen as a betrayal of the original decision to keep the book from wide distribution.[58]

In the words of Burt A. Folkart of the Los Angeles Times, Manheim himself later argued that his translation was a “troubled effort because Hitler’s style and mixed metaphors had to be rendered into simple English.”[59]

Excerpts

In its efforts to counteract the influence of Dugdale's Mein Kampf abridgement, the American Jewish Committee drew up a mimeograph of quotations which showed that Hitler "attacked not only the Jews but the liberal institutions that are the basis of the government of the United States and in which he glorified war and the militaristic spirit. As these were not part of the abridged edition, copies of this mimeograph were sent to book reviews across the country."[60][61]

The first excerpts from Mein Kampf to be published in English were selections from the Dugdale abridgement in the London

education under Nazism.[63]

A series of pamphlets published by the Friends of Europe included four which consisted of excerpts from Mein Kampf. The first dealt with biographical information, and the other three contained quotations on race, religion and foreign policy.[64] The latter pamphlet was originally "extracted and translated" by Rennie Smith, however, the pamphlet's "guiding spirit" quickly became the Duchess of Atholl.[65] She contacted the Foreign Office and was given the excerpts that had been prepared by Weizmann. Further inquiries from her convinced the British foreign ministry to compose an in-house translation of some of the passages. The 11-page document, Central Germany, 7 May 1936 – Confidential – A Translation of Some of the More Important Passages of Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925 edition), was circulated among the British diplomatic corps, and a private copy was also sent to the Duchess of Atholl, who may or may not have used it in what was ultimately her translation of Mein Kampf in the Friends of Europe pamphlet.[66]

In 1939, two further pamphlets containing excerpts from Mein Kampf were published. One of these, Mein Kampf: A New Unexpurgated Translation Condensed with Critical Comments and Explanatory Notes, was published by a start up firm based in

Hearst syndicate. While dictating the translation to secretaries in Manhattan, one of the transcribers who happened to be Jewish became alarmed at the contents and contacted the Anti-Defamation League, who sent Benjamin Epstein to investigate. When Epstein learned that the publication was meant to alert the American people to the danger Hitler presented, Epstein decided to collaborate with Spiro and Cranston. "Once I realized he was really on our side ... I opened our files and we worked very closely together", he was later quoted as saying.[67][47]

This pamphlet was published in a 32-page tabloid edition with notes, maps and illustrations. The cover stated that not one cent of royalties would be paid to Hitler, and the profits would supposedly go to refugees. Cranston claimed that they sold half a million copies in 10 days at 10 cents each. However, Houghton Mifflin secured an injunction against Noram from the Federal District Court and they had to pulp their remaining stock of 500,000.[67][68]

Finally, there is Mein Kampf: An Unexpurgated Digest. Relatively little is known of this edition or its editor and translator, B.D. Shaw. He explains in his preface that he was concerned about Germany's expansionism in the late 1930s and wished to alert the public to the dangers Hitler presented, but which were not shown in the abridged edition of his book.[69] Like the Cranston pamphlet it cost 10 cents and it had 31 pages.[70]

Reception and readership

The British edition of the abridgement was reviewed by The Times,

Yorkshire Post.[71]

Publication of the Dugdale abridgement was actively opposed by Jewish organizations in the United States. Prominent stock broker

Chicago Israelite and lawyer Samuel Untermyer also urged that it not be published.[72]

In the United States the book was reviewed by the New York Times twice – once on its day of publication, 11 October 1933, by

The Nation by Ludwig Lore who would go on to write the introduction for the Stackpole edition.[75]

There is no firm evidence that Stanley Baldwin or Neville Chamberlain ever read the abridgement, but Franklin D. Roosevelt had one in his library in which was annotated: "The White House – 1933 This translation is so expurgated as to give a wholly false view of what Hitler is and says – the German original would make a different story."[76] He had been sent a complimentary copy by the publishers.[60]

It is known that Chamberlain read the above-mentioned extracts circulated in the Foreign Office by Anthony Eden. When the unabridged translation was published, Chamberlain immediately bought a copy and annotated it.[77] The Murphy translation was also reviewed in The Times, The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, Times Literary Supplement and Evening News. Reviews were mostly positive about the translation itself, but felt that Murphy's introduction was too favorable to the author.[78]

See also

References

  1. ^ "HOUGHTON-MIFFLIN, BEWARE!". The Sentinel. 14 September 1933.
  2. ^ "Hitler Aberration". The Sentinel. 8 June 1939.
  3. ^ Barnes, James J.and Barnes, Patience P. (1980) Hitler's Mein Kampf in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930–39 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 3
  4. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 3–5
  5. ^ a b Barnes and Barnes, pp. 6–7
  6. NSDAP/AO beginning in Sept. 1931, pp.6–7; he stepped down as Ortsgruppenleiter
    in January 1932, but remained an active member into at least Nov. 1933 pp.10, 19
  7. ^ Adolf Hitler My Struggle London: The Paternoster Library title page
  8. ^ Lankiewicz, Donald. MEIN KAMPF in America: How Adolf Hitler Came to Be Published in the United States. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  9. ^ a b Barnes and Barnes, p. 2
  10. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 78
  11. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 79
  12. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 80–1
  13. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 16–8, 143 n.16
  14. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p.17
  15. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 78, 147 n. 14
  16. ^ a b Barnes and Barnes, pp. 82, 148 n. 19
  17. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 53–4
  18. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 56–7
  19. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 58–9, 63
  20. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 59–60; Hurst and Blackett exclusive rights to publish in the United Kingdom and its dependencies p.63
  21. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 60–61
  22. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 61–63
  23. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 64
  24. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 69–71, 146 n.22
  25. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 67–68
  26. S2CID 192972565
    .
  27. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 83
  28. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 86–7
  29. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 88
  30. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 88–9
  31. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 103, 105, 121
  32. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 121–2
  33. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 122–3
  34. ^ Mein Royalties Cabinet Magazine Online.
  35. ^ Mein Kampf. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940 p. xii
  36. ^ a b c "Introduction," Mein Kampf. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940; pg. viii.
  37. ^ Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940; pg. vii
  38. ^ "Introduction" to Reynal and Hitchcock edition, pg. ix.
  39. ^ Mein Kampf. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940 back dust jacket
  40. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 94–7
  41. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 106
  42. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 105
  43. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 110
  44. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 110–5
  45. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 115–8
  46. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 119–20
  47. ^ a b Houghton Mifflin Co. v. Noram Pub. Co., 28 F. Supp. 676 (S.D.N.Y. 1939)
  48. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 120–1
  49. ^ Holiday, Ryan (21 December 2018). "How Hitler Nearly Destroyed the Great American Novel". medium.com. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  50. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 104
  51. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 121
  52. ^ Mein Kampf
  53. ^ U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Houghton Mifflin Co. v. Stackpole Sons, Inc., et al., 104 Fed.2d 306 (1939); Note, 49 Yale L.J. 132 (1939).
  54. ^ "HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. v. STACKPOLE SONS, INC".
  55. ^ "Kampleman US & International Copyright 1947".
  56. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 135–6
  57. ^ Hitler, Adolf, Ralph Manheim, and Abraham H. Foxman. 2002. Mein Kampf. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  58. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 138
  59. ^ Folkart, Burt A. (29 September 1992). "Ralph Manheim; Master Translator of Literature". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  60. ^ a b Barnes and Barnes, p. 74
  61. ^ American Jewish Year Book Vol. 36 (1934–1935) pp. 446–7
  62. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 7, 142 n. 8
  63. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 23–6 Barnes and Barnes include some passages from Weizmann's translation
  64. ^ Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945; Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray Atholl, Duchess of Germany's foreign policy as stated in "Mein Kampf", "Friends of Europe" publications No. 38 London : Friends of Europe, 1936 p.ii
  65. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 26–7
  66. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 28–32, 36–37
  67. ^ a b Anthony O. Miller Court Halted Dime Edition of 'Mein Kampf': Cranston Tells How Hitler Sued Him and Won United Press International 14 February 1988
  68. ^ "Houghton Miflin Suing on Behalf of Hitler and "Mein Kampf" (1939)". longstreet.typepad.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  69. ^ Hitler, Adolf, and B. D. Shaw. 1939. Mein Kampf: an unexpurgated digest. New York: Political Digest Press. Introduction
  70. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 119, 152 n. 15
  71. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp.18, p.143 n.18 The source for this list of reviews was a memo from Hurst and Blackett to Eher Verlag dated 25 March 1936 in the Rehse collection at the Library of Congress
  72. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 73–6
  73. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 77, 147 n.10, n.11
  74. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 77–8
  75. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 133, 154 n.7
  76. ^ Barnes and Barnes, p. 49
  77. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 47–8
  78. ^ Barnes and Barnes, pp. 64–5, 146 n. 17

Further reading

  • Pastore, Stephen R., Andreas Stanik, and Steven M. Brewster. 2016. Adolf Hitler's Mein kampf: a descriptive bibliography. New York, New York: American Bibliographic Press, 2016.

External links

Excerpt pamphlets

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