Ardis Publishing
Encyclopedia
Ardis Publishing began in 1971, as the only publishing house outside of Russia
dedicated to Russian literature in both English and Russian, Ardis was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan
by husband and wife scholars Carl R. Proffer and Ellendea C. Proffer
. The Proffers had two goals for Ardis: one was to publish in Russian
the "lost library" of twentieth-century Russian literature which had been censored and removed from Soviet
libraries
(Mandelstam
, Tsvetaeva
, Nabokov
, among others); the other was to bring translations of contemporary writers working in the Soviet Union to the West. Ardis has published around 400 titles, roughly half in English
, half in Russian
.
Ardis became important in the Soviet Union, and then acclaimed in the new Russia, because it published, in Russian, many works which could not be published there until the dawn of Glasnost
. Such authors as Nabokov, Sokolov
, Brodsky
, Bitov
, Iskander
, Aksyonov
and many others published in Russian with Ardis, and the books were smuggled back into the Soviet Union
. Besides publishing new translations of the classics as well as academic guides, notable publications such as the Russian Literature Triquarterly, and all but one of the main books of poetry by Brodsky, Carl Proffer facilitated Brodsky's coming to the United States, by assuring him of a job at the University of Michigan
.
In English, among many other titles, Ardis published the complete letters of Dostoevsky
, major prose collections of Mandelstam and Tsvetaeva, and the only annotated translation of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (now published by Vintage), as well as major histories of eighteenth-century literature and the most inclusive anthology of Romantic literature. Translations of Bulgakov's major plays were also published by the Proffers, with Indiana University Press (rights have now reverted to Ellendea Proffer). The range of titles was very broad, ranging from Nabokov's translation of A Hero of our Time to Razgon's memoirs of the camps.
A professor at the University of Michigan, Carl R. Proffer died in 1984 of colon cancer at age 46. His wife Ellendea continued publishing and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989.
The name Ardis comes from the novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
by Vladimir Nabokov
.
See: Ardis 25 years of Russian Literature, catalog for exhibit at the Library of Foreign literature, Moscow, May 28, 1996.
Some, but not all of Ardis's English-language titles were sold to The Overlook Press
in 2002, which has begun reprinting selected titles of the Ardis back catalog. Ardis Publishing is an imprint
owned by an American
independent publisher
Overlook Press
. It should be mentioned that Overlook Press purchased only the rights to certain English-language titles, as well as the English-language name of Ardis Publishers. Ardis at Overlook specializes in English
translations of Russian literature
, and has so far reprinted 26 of the original Ardis titles.
The archive of the original Ardis Publishing is now housed at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
dedicated to Russian literature in both English and Russian, Ardis was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
by husband and wife scholars Carl R. Proffer and Ellendea C. Proffer
Ellendea Proffer Teasley
Ellendea Proffer Teasley is an American author, publisher, and translator of Russian literature into English.She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1966.She married Carl R...
. The Proffers had two goals for Ardis: one was to publish in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
the "lost library" of twentieth-century Russian literature which had been censored and removed from Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
libraries
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
(Mandelstam
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam was a Russian poet and essayist who lived in Russia during and after its revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets...
, Tsvetaeva
Marina Tsvetaeva
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian and Soviet poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russian literature. She lived through and wrote of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Moscow famine that followed it. In an attempt to save her daughter Irina from...
, Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, among others); the other was to bring translations of contemporary writers working in the Soviet Union to the West. Ardis has published around 400 titles, roughly half in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, half in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Ardis became important in the Soviet Union, and then acclaimed in the new Russia, because it published, in Russian, many works which could not be published there until the dawn of Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
. Such authors as Nabokov, Sokolov
Sasha Sokolov
Sasha Sokolov is a paradoxical writer of Russian literature....
, Brodsky
Joseph Brodsky
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky , was a Russian poet and essayist.In 1964, 23-year-old Brodsky was arrested and charged with the crime of "social parasitism" He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and settled in America with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters...
, Bitov
Andrei Bitov
Andrei Georgiyevich Bitov is a prominent Russian writer. Many consider him among the foremost Russian writers of the late 20th century.Among the novels that solidified his reputation are: Flying-Away Monakhov, Life in Windy Weather, Pushkin House, Captive of the Caucasus, and The Monkey Link.Bitov...
, Iskander
Fazil Iskander
Fazil Abdulovich Iskander is arguably the most famous Abkhaz writer, renowned in the former Soviet Union for his vivid descriptions of Caucasian life, mostly written in Russian...
, Aksyonov
Vasily Aksyonov
Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He is known in the West as the author of The Burn and Generations of Winter , a family saga depicting three generations of the Gradov family between 1925 and 1953.-Early life:Vasily Aksyonov was...
and many others published in Russian with Ardis, and the books were smuggled back into the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Besides publishing new translations of the classics as well as academic guides, notable publications such as the Russian Literature Triquarterly, and all but one of the main books of poetry by Brodsky, Carl Proffer facilitated Brodsky's coming to the United States, by assuring him of a job at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
.
In English, among many other titles, Ardis published the complete letters of Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
, major prose collections of Mandelstam and Tsvetaeva, and the only annotated translation of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (now published by Vintage), as well as major histories of eighteenth-century literature and the most inclusive anthology of Romantic literature. Translations of Bulgakov's major plays were also published by the Proffers, with Indiana University Press (rights have now reverted to Ellendea Proffer). The range of titles was very broad, ranging from Nabokov's translation of A Hero of our Time to Razgon's memoirs of the camps.
A professor at the University of Michigan, Carl R. Proffer died in 1984 of colon cancer at age 46. His wife Ellendea continued publishing and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989.
The name Ardis comes from the novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1969.Ada began to materialize in 1959, when Nabokov was flirting with two projects: "The Texture of Time" and "Letters from Terra." In 1965, he began to see a link between the two ideas, finally composing a unified novel...
by Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
.
See: Ardis 25 years of Russian Literature, catalog for exhibit at the Library of Foreign literature, Moscow, May 28, 1996.
Some, but not all of Ardis's English-language titles were sold to The Overlook Press
The Overlook Press
The Overlook Press is an American independent publishing house based in New York. It was formed in 1971 by Peter Mayer, who had previously worked at Avon and Penguin Books, where he was CEO from 1978 to 1998. A general-interest publisher, Overlook has over one thousand titles in print, including...
in 2002, which has begun reprinting selected titles of the Ardis back catalog. Ardis Publishing is an imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
owned by an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
independent publisher
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
Overlook Press
The Overlook Press
The Overlook Press is an American independent publishing house based in New York. It was formed in 1971 by Peter Mayer, who had previously worked at Avon and Penguin Books, where he was CEO from 1978 to 1998. A general-interest publisher, Overlook has over one thousand titles in print, including...
. It should be mentioned that Overlook Press purchased only the rights to certain English-language titles, as well as the English-language name of Ardis Publishers. Ardis at Overlook specializes in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translations of Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
, and has so far reprinted 26 of the original Ardis titles.
The archive of the original Ardis Publishing is now housed at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan.