論台灣兒童版林肯傳記

On Abraham Lincoln's Biographies for Children in Taiwan

10.29980/MCL.201212.0012

廖卓成(Cho-Cheng Liao)

兒童傳記 ； 林肯 ； 何祖紹 ； biography for children ； Lincoln ； Benjamin P. Thomas

中國現代文學

22期（2012 / 12 / 20）

189 - 213

繁體中文

在台灣出版的林肯兒童傳記，包括由英、日文翻譯的，目前在公共圖書館流通的起碼有34種，其中有大小不等的缺點。林肯的英文資料雖然汗牛充棟，其中受推崇的一本長傳，1954年在台灣就已經有中譯本，比34種兒童版要早。如果兒童文學作家能充分參考這本書，而不是根據其他參差的傳記或兒童版複製，可以避免很多錯誤。本文首先介紹早年台灣有哪些中文林肯傳記可資參考，並論述其內容優劣。其次，強調林肯事蹟之中，哪些最值得介紹給小讀者。復次，表列34種兒童版林肯傳，指出其特色，並綜論其中常見的侷限，鑑別較可讀的版本，以供讀者參考。最後，建議如果撰寫新的兒童版林肯傳，有何新出資料可供作者和繪者參考。從這個例子可知，撰寫外國人傳記給中文讀者閱讀，如果能得要領，有時基本的幾本中文長傳，已有足夠的豐富資料，可資參考。

There are at least thirty four different versions of biographies of Abraham Lincoln published for children in Taiwan. This article argues that there are important events that should be included in the biography for children to understand Lincoln. It is also pointed out that many problems in these books could be avoided if the writers had referred to basic references. Actually, the children books writers had enough good references in Chinese because two classic biographies on Lincoln had been translated into Chinese since 1967. However, the writers didn't use the good references, instead, it seems that they have used some questionable books, or just adopted other children books with questionable narrative.It is suggested to write a foreigner's biography for Chinese young readers by referring only a couple of classic biographies translated in Chinese. By providing the future writers references to Abraham Lincoln, the paper suggests that three books in Chinese and one in English may be basically enough.