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254 The Translator’s Invisibilitythe project. But these attempts were sporadic and without success.The translation at last appeared posthumously in 1978 as Proensa:An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry, edited by Blackburn’s friend, themedievalist and poet George Economou, for the University ofCalifornia Press.Why didn’t Blackburn complete a project that was certain to bepublished and under contractual terms that were favorable to thetranslator (despite the low advance)? Different answers have beenoffered for this question, ranging from Blackburn’s unsettledpersonal life at the time (his divorce from his first wife, his financialstraits) to a psychoanalytic assessment that found his relations withwomen, particularly his mother, the poet Frances Frost, linked to an“obsession” with “the idealization of woman as expressed by theTroubadours” (Eshleman 1989:19). The Macmillan episode couldonly be determined by these private investments in a most publicform, which here included a harsh reader’s report. Sara Golden,Blackburn’s second wife (1963–1967), recalled that the report “sentPaul back to an endless spiral of revisions that never ended until hisdeath” (Telephone interview, 23 January 1992). Rosenthal describedBlackburn as “appalled” by the report; the poet Robert Kelly, a friendof Blackburn’s who edited some of his posthumous books,mentioned that “Paul was both hurt and amused by it” and wouldsometimes read out the criticisms in a comically exaggerated voice(Telephone interviews, 26 December 1991 and 23 July 1992). Takenaback by these criticisms, after years of encouragement from writerslike Pound and Creeley and from editors at magazines like HudsonReview, Origin, and The Nation, Blackburn did not complete themanuscript. On the contrary, he suddenly felt that it needed anenormous amount of work, not just an introduction and annotations,but substantial revisions of the translation. Unfortunately, he alsolacked an editor to facilitate his completion of the project and bringit to press.Capouya sought evaluations from powerful poet—translators andcritics. He turned first to a poet and translator of Dante, John Ciardi,then associated with Saturday Review, who wrote back “Anthol ofTroubadours sounds interesting” but declined because of priorcommitments. Capouya then turned to Ramon Guthrie, an Americanpoet who lived in France for many years and was currently professorof French at Dartmouth. Guthrie (1896–1973) published his firstbooks in the 1920s: translations and adaptations of troubadourpoetry and a novel based on the texts of Marcabru. Under a