Tuesday, July 31, 2007

More power to Esko Hamilo

A man called Esko Hamilo has just been appointed a special assistant to the Prime Minister of Finland. A name struck a memory chord and I had to check: yes, he was the man who translated a good chunk of crime and mystery novels in the sixties, seventies and eighties. He did the Finnish translations of Ross Macdonald's The Galton Case (as Rouva Galtonin perillinen, 1981) and The Chill (as Tappotuomio, 1985). He also did several Mickey Spillanes and The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins and John Godey's Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three, as well as The Other by Thomas Tryon and a Shell Scott paperback by Richard Prather. All American crime classics.

The best-known of the books Hamilo translated is Bury My Heart in Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Here's hoping he recommends some of those books to the Prime Minister.

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