Three Accounts of the Vasil'ev-Shismarev Expedition of 1819-1822

2

journeys cover a much larger territory than the Bering Strait.

It seems to me that this entire journey (as found in accounts 1, 3, and 5) should be translated verbatim. I would edit the translations and write a preface to place the journey in its proper geographical, historical, and ethnological perspective.

My problem is wondering where to get some [mooney] to pay Mrs. Josephson for the translating. She is a semi-retired lawyer, and I can't ask her to do all of this gratis, even though I would be willing to do all the rest of the work without compensation as a contribution to knowledge if need be. Since I am not now connected with any inatiation it is sometimes difficult to get research funds; but it is doubly difficult to get funds for such projects as translating. Do you know of any fund or foundations that I could apply to for translating this material--it would probaly run between $700-900; I'm not at all sure of the exact amount because my estimate of the Russian length (English is always longer in translation) of these accounts is a rough guess.

I'm not sure where it would be published. I think that Arctic Anthropology would be interested, but I haven't written yet to Chet Chard; perhaps even Anthropological Papers of University of Alaska. I did write to Henry Michael, editor of the Anthropology of the North: Translations from Russian Sources, Arctic Institute of North America, thinking they might have funds for translating, but he said they don't even have funds for further publishing, and I have heard rumors that the end of the series may not be far off.

This project might even make a nice little book. I wrote Mr. Cuningham, editor-in-chief of the University of Washington Press, who wrote me that he would be delighted to publish it because they hoped to inaugurate a Russian translations series, BUT he could not give me any encouragement right at the moment because they have not yet found funds for such a program. I thought that by publishing it on a royalty basis, Mrs. Josephson could be compensated in that way.

You can see that things are bad all over. But I think this idea is a worth-while project, and I thought I would tap your experience in such matters of translating and publishing funds first of all. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

The University of Washing Press tells me that they have only a few copies of Eskimo Masks left, and they are not planning to reprint it in the near future, but it is to be translated into Danish and possibly one or two more Scandinavian languages by Rhodos of Copenhagen.

I wrote a long (70 pages) manuscript about Bering Strait Eskimo place names for a journal called Names (American Name Society), but it is so lengthy that they might have to publish it in two parts. It won't