Shel­ley Frisch taught at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty and Haver­ford Col­lege, where she chaired the Ger­man Depart­ment, before turn­ing to trans­la­tion full-time in the 1990s. Her trans­la­tions from Ger­man, which include biogra­phies of Friedrich Niet­zsche, Albert Ein­stein, Leonar­do da Vin­ci, Mar­lene Dietrich/​Leni Riefen­stahl (dual biog­ra­phy), and Franz Kaf­ka and many oth­er works of fic­tion and non­fic­tion, have been award­ed numer­ous trans­la­tion prizes, includ­ing the Helen and Kurt Wolff Trans­la­tor’s Prize. She lives in Prince­ton, New Jersey.