Frances Frenaye

Frances Frenaye Lanza (née Frenaye; April 2, 1908 – April 12, 1996) was an American translator of French and Italian literature. She translated work by writers including Giovanni Guareschi, Balzac, Carlo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, Ignazio Silone, Elie Wiesel, Alberto Moravia, Dacia Maraini, and Antonio Tabucchi, and received significant praise from critics. For her 1976 translation of Giuseppe Dessì's Paese d'ombre (The Forests of Norbio), Frenaye was awarded the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation; her translations of Georges Blond's The Plunderers (L'Épopée de la mer) and Henri-René Lenormand's Renée earned her the 1951 Denyse Clairouin Memorial Award.

Born in Lawrence, Long Island, to a family of distant French descent, Frenaye attended the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and went on to graduate from Bryn Mawr College in 1930, after which she spent six years in Europe, mostly Paris and Rome. During World War II, she worked as an official for the Justice Department in Washington, and subsequently was a columnist for Italian newspaper Il Mondo as well as, from 1963 to 1980, the newsletter editor for the Italian Cultural Institute in Manhattan, where she lived for about 50 years.

In 1939, Frenaye married Italian nobleman Angelo Lanza di Trabia from Sicily, from whom she separated in 1961 when he traveled back to Italy; they had one daughter. She died at her apartment in Miami Beach at the age of 88.

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding Library of Congress Linked Data Service: linked authority record n85806343. Retrieved on 2026-06-08.
  2. 1 2 3 Pace, Eric (April 15, 1996). "Frances Frenaye is Dead at 88; Translated European Literature". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Dorigatti, Marco (2013). "La figura e l'opera di Dessì nell'orizzonte culturale inglese". In Dolfi, Anna (ed.). Giuseppe Dessì tra traduzioni e edizioni: una raccolta di saggi (PDF). Moderna/Comparata (in Italian). Vol. 1. Florence: Firenze University Press. pp. 39–96. ISBN 978-88-6655-364-9.
  4. 1 2 3 "The Dry Heart". Knuth Book Cellar. Retrieved June 8, 2026.