Ilf and Petrov
Ilf and Petrov | |
---|---|
Born | Odessa, Russian Empire (now Odesa, Ukraine) |
Died | Moscow, Soviet Union (Ilf) Rostov Oblast, Soviet Union (Petrov) |
Occupation | Novelists, short story writers |
Notable works | The Twelve Chairs The Little Golden Calf One-storied America |
Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Feinsilberg or Russian: Илья Арнольдович Файнзильберг, 1897–1937) and Yevgeny Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Katayev or Russian: Евгений Петрович Катаев, 1902–1942) were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s. They did much of their writing together, and are almost always referred to as "Ilf and Petrov". They were natives of Odessa.
The duo were arguably the most popular satirical writers in the Soviet period.[1] representatives of the "Odessa School" of humorist writers,[2] and some of the very prominent, mostly Jewish odessit (Odessa native) cultural figures along with Isaac Babel and Leonid Utesov, who moved to work in the Soviet capital after the abolition of restrictions on Jewish residence in the Pale of Settlement.[3][4]
Publications
Ilf and Petrov gained a high profile for their two satirical novels:
From the late 1920s to 1937, the co-authors wrote several theatrical plays and screenplays, as well as many humorous short stories and satirical articles in the magazines Chudak, 30 days, Krokodil and Ogoniok; and the newspapers Pravda and Literaturnaya Gazeta. In the first years of joint creativity Ilf and Petrov published their stories and satires under parodic pseudonyms: Tolstoevsky (composed of the names of writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky), Don Busilio (from Don Basilio, a character in the opera The Barber of Seville, and the Russian verb busa – scandal, noise), Cold philosopher and others.[5]
The two writers also traveled across the Great Depression-era United States. Ilf took many pictures throughout the journey, and the authors produced a photo essay entitled "American Photographs", published in Ogoniok magazine.[6] Shortly after that they published the book Одноэтажная Америка (literally: "One-storied America"), translated as Little Golden America[7] (an allusion to The Little Golden Calf). The first edition of the book did not include Ilf's photographs. Both the photo essay and the book document their adventures with their characteristic humor and playfulness. Notably, Ilf and Petrov were not afraid to praise many aspects of the American lifestyle in these works while being highly critical of others. The title comes from the following description.
America is primarily a one-and two-storey country. The majority of the American population lives in small towns of three thousand, maybe five, nine, or fifteen thousand inhabitants.
Vladimir Nabokov considered them to be "wonderfully gifted writers".[8]
Ilf died of tuberculosis a few months after their return from the USA. Petrov became a front line correspondent during the Second World War and, after covering the fighting in Sevastopol, was killed when the airplane he was travelling in back to Moscow crashed while flying low to avoid anti-aircraft fire.
Script authors
- Woman-Sycophant – comic play (1930, “Подхалимка”)[9]
- House-Barracks – screenplay (1931, “Барак”)[10]
- Strong Feeling – vaudeville (1933, “Сильное чувство”)[11]
- Under the Circus Dome – comic play (1934, with Valentin Kataev, “Под куполом цирка”)[12]
In culture
The
Bibliography
- Двенадцать стульев [The Twelve Chairs] (in Russian), 1928
- The Twelve Chairs, Northwestern University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8101-1484-4
- The Twelve Chairs, Northwestern University Press, 1997,
- Золотой теленок [The Little Golden Calf], 1931
- Одноэтажная Америка [One-storied America], 1937
- Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Eugene (1974) [1937], Little Golden America, Ishi Press International, ISBN 4871876748[7]
- Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Eugene (1974) [1937], Little Golden America, Ishi Press International,
- Shrayer, Maxim D. (2018). "Ilya Ilf (1897–1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903–1942)". Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature: an Anthology. Academic Studies Press. pp. 349–362. OCLC 1121369372.
- Smith, Alexandra (2003). "Il'ia Il'f (15 October 1897-13 April 1937) and Evgenii Petrov (13 December 1903-2 July 1942)". In Rydel, Christine (ed.). Russian prose writers between the world wars. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 272. Gale. OCLC 941455049.
- Wolf, Erika, ed. (2006). Ilf & Petrov's American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers. Translated by Fisher, Anne O. New York: Cabinet Books and Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-600-9. (A translation of the eleven-part "American Photographs" photo-essay originally published in Ogoniok)
Notes and references
- OCLC 941455049.
- S2CID 151561800.
- OCLC 663954283.
- )
- ^ List of works by Ilf and Petrov.
- ^ Ogoniok magazine: 1936, # 11-17, 20-23 (11 photo essays: Ilf's photos, Ilf and Petrov's texts).
- ^ a b Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Eugene (1937). Little Golden America (PDF). New York: Farrar & Rinehart.
- ISBN 9781496810984.
- ^ The play is staged at the Moscow music hall in 1930.
- ^ The comedy Black Barrack was released in 1933..
- ^ The play was staged at the Moscow Satire Theatre in 1933.
- ^ Grigori Aleksandrov used this play for the script of the film Circus.
- ISBN 3-540-00238-3.
External links
- The Twelve Chairs (full text), RU: Lib.
- Ilf, I; Petrov, E (2004). "American Photographs: The Road". Cabinet(14). (first chapter of "American Photographs," translated into English as Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip )
- Ilf and Petrov, life, work and background (in English and Russian), NL.
- "Conversations at Tea" by Ilf and Petrov. Humorous story about generation gap between an Old Bolshevik and his young son, United States.