Samuel P. Willcocks

Samuel Willcocks was born on 25 June 1973.

He studied German and Czech and the University of Cambridge and held a M.A. degree in History from the University of Oxford. He began his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, then continued them at University College London (2006-2009), under the supervision of Seb Coxon. Eventually, he found his true calling in translation. He was the first winner of the German Embassy Award for Translators in 2010.

His first literary commission was a rendering of Dietmar Dath’s Die Abschaffung der Arten into English, published as The Abolition of Species in 2013 by Seagull Books. Samuel continued his collaboration with Seagull Books and translated more titles for them: Peter Pannke, Singers Die Twice (2013); Gert Loschütz, Dark Company (2012); Hugo Loetscher, Noah (2012).

The translation of Werner Bräunig’s Rummelplatz appeared posthumously in 2015, with the final touches to the work provided by Shaun Whiteside. Samuel also translated other works of fiction, such as Franz Schätzing, Limit (together with Jamie Searle and Shaun Whiteside, 2013) and Andreas Eschbach, Lord of All Things (Amazon Publishing 2014).

Samuel died of cancer on 26 March 2015.