This Norton Critical Edition is based on Peter Constantine’s incomparable translations, which are introduced and annotated by the renowned Babel scholar Gregory Freidin. Isaac Babel’s work has left an indelible mark on modern literature. The scope of this Norton Critical Edition surpasses that of any other Babel paperback edition and includes his fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, plays, and political writings together with the contextual and critical materials necessary...

For the major poets of Osip Mandelstam's generation, poetry represented a calling in the most tangible sense. To respond to it meant to fashion from the available cultural and personal material a mythic self, one that could serve both as the organizing subject for poetry and as an object of worshipful adoration. A successful poet like Mandelstam thus became the focal point of a complex cultural phenomenon-perhaps a charismatic cult-that shaped his writings, gesture, and reception.Gregory Freidin...

A Literary Cult Figure On A Par With Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel Disappeared In May 1939 When He Was Arrested By Soviet Secret Police. As Soviet-era Archives Have Become Subject To Scholarly Scrutiny So It Has Become Possible To Create A More Rounded Portrait Of Babel And To Answer Questions About His Fate. Attempting A Biography. Researching Babel's Biography : Adventures And Misadventures / Patricia Blake -- Babels' Two Aphrodites : Autobiography In Maria And Babel's Petersburg Myth / Gregory Freidin...

On August 19, 1991, eight high-ranking Soviet officials took over the government of the USSR and proclaimed themselves its new rulers. Less than seventy-two hours later, their coup had collapsed, but it would change the course of history in a way that no one - certainly not the plotters themselves - could have foreseen. The editor of this volume, who witnessed these momentous events, have assembled firsthand accounts of the attempted coup. They include testimonies from "junta" members and military...