Were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm soldiers? On the editorial challenges involved in translating academic monographs

Abstract

The recent publication of the Polish translation of Grimm brothers' biography by an American scholar Ann Schmiesing (Bracia Grimm. Biografia, transl. A. Halbersztat, Poznań 2026) has revealed numerous difficulties caused by indirect translation via a third language. The Polish edition contains translations of translations – the Polish translator rendered excerpts from source texts that the American scholar had previously translated from German into English. Furthermore, the publication in question shows numerous editorial errors resulting from the lack of a consistent publishing strategy (e.g., regarding the titles of scholarly works or footnotes) and the absence of careful linguistic editing. The quality of the biography in question is also affected by the publisher’s decision not to hire a specialist in Germanic philology. The publication also raises questions about the extent of the publisher’s intervention in cases of factual errors present in the original version.