Invading the American Canon

Muireann Maguire is Professor in Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of Stalin's Ghosts: Gothic Themes in Early Soviet Language (2021), and co-editor of Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context (forthcoming, 2024) and Reading Backwards: An Advance Retrospective on Russian Literature (2021). She is also an active freelance translator from Russian to English.

• List of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgementsNotes on Transliteration, Citation, and ReferencingIntroduction: Russian and American Literature in the Twentieth Century Introduction: Fraternal twins Methodology: Translator studies Introducing Nicholas Wreden ‘Gorki at Coney Island’: A critical overview ‘A Great Treasure’: Russian literature as intellectual and aesthetic capitalConclusion1. The Taming of the Arts: Publishing Russian Literature in America to 1935 ‘The great Autocracy and the great Republic’The earliest American translators: Schuyler and his successors Schuyler’s translations: ‘More Or Less Clumsily Englished’‘Fragments of a foreign feast’: Translation at the turn of the nineteenth century Hapgood and Dole: ‘Cobbling Extraordinary’Hapgood and Gorky: ‘rather strong meat’Aline Delano and Korolenko: ‘comparatively, no sense of humor’Thomas Seltzer: ‘a tiny Jew, but trustworthy’Conclusion: Ram them!2. Unmaking A Russian: The Rise of Nicholas Wreden Unmaking a Russian, Making an American “Go Into The Book Business!” Wreden as book travelerAdventures in the retail trade: Wreden the bookstore manager‘A big job to do during the next couple of years’: Wreden on committees‘An invaluable member of this organization’: Wreden as editorWreden and Russophone cultural networks Conclusion: Greeting ghosts 3. To Live As We Wish: Nicholas Wreden as TranslatorIntroduction: ‘a staggering amount’Soviet sex crime: The reception of Dog Lane on both sides of the Pacific ‘Gremlins in their Kremlins’: The Fifth Seal scandalGazdanov and The Specter of Alexander WolfConclusion4. I’ll Never Go Back: Russian-Americans in Translation and PublishingIntroduction: A constellation of translatorsBoris Brasol: ‘a red rag to all Jewish readers’John Cournos: ‘unaccountable predilections’A World May End: Irina Skariatina‘An Unfortunate Case of Versatility’: The adventures of Bernard Guilbert Guerney ‘I Think Every Good American Should Have A Book’: Bookstore owner and publisher“I hope the nail on your big toe dies of small pox”: Guerney’s career as translator and anthologist‘Kid Pasternak’ and the ‘Zhivago job’Conclusion5. For Thee The Best: Ardis, and a Different Kind of ArdorIntroduction: On the Soviet literary frontThe foundation of ArdisProbably the greatest poets of the century: the translation of Mandel’shtam, Brodsky, and SokolovCarl Proffer: ‘On the whole, with accuracy’A “complex phenomenon”: Ardis and its achievementsConclusion: Wheelchair basketballConclusion: Through the Years Two deathsIndex

This is a ground-breaking study of the forces that brought Russian literature to the American public. Maguire takes her readers behind the scenes, introducing a cast of diverse, unforgettable characters: writers, translators, editors, publishers, agents, booksellers, critics, and scholars. Sometimes collaborating, sometimes clashing, they navigated daunting obstacles in a decades-long process that changed American literature. Featuring a lively, engaging style, this book represents a significant contribution to literary and translation studies, and, importantly, to the ever-evolving, ever-fraught American history of immigration.