Ellendea Proffer Teasley (born 1944) is an American author, publisher, and translator of
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
into English.
Biography
She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University, taught at Wayne State University and University of Michigan, Dearborn. She is a well-known
Bulgakov expert, translator and publisher. She is known for ''Mikhail Bulgakov: Life & Work'' (1984); translations of Bulgakov's plays and prose; numerous articles and introductions, most prominently the Notes and Afterword to the Burgin-O'Connor translation of Bulgakov's ''The Master and Margarita.''
She married
Carl R. Proffer (1938–1984), and co-founded
Ardis Publishers in 1971, a publishing house specializing in Russian literature, both in English and Russian. As a publisher, she was responsible for the collected works of Bulgakov in Russian, which then triggered a Soviet edition. Proffer Teasley edited a series of well-received photo-biographies, including those devoted to
Nabokov,
Tsvetaeva
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (russian: Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈtaɪvə; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russia ...
and Bulgakov. Her memoir of Joseph Brodsky, ''Brodsky Among Us,'' was published in English in 2017, after the Russian translation was published in Moscow in 2015, where it became a bestseller.
Ellendea Proffer was on the first judges' panel for the Booker Russian Novel Prize, and in 1989 received a Macarthur Fellowship for her work with Ardis.
The Ardis archives, including Carl and Ellendea Proffer's papers, are held at
University of Michigan.
The archive consists of a collection of manuscripts, typescripts, correspondences, books, photographs, and proofs of selected titles.
Lectures in English
* "One Book, Two Cultures: Brodsky Among Us" (Harvard Davis Center, 2017). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuBDigwrQw
* "How Censorship Leads to Tamizdat
ublishing abroad (Tamizdat Conference, Hunter College, NYC, 2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOPmbJaKCGg
* "Writing in a Time of Terror: Mikhail Bulgakov" (Dillard University, New Orleans, 2019). https://vimeo.com/326628255
Talks in Russian
* "" (Dostoevsky Library, Moscow, 2015) with Anton Dolin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijYImQyhi5U
* "" (MMOMA, Moscow, 2017) with Anton Dolin). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn2XBbQ9Iss
Awards
*1989
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
References
* Boyd, Brian. ''Nabokov: the Later Years''
* Vasily Aksyonov, ''In Search of Melancholy Baby''
* Lev Kopelev & Raya Orlova, ''We Lived in Moscow''
External links
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqQgsgKNNII (CBS Morning Show on Proffer, 1983)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GpGk_HBTHE (“Russian Visa”
n Russian
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
program on Ardis; interview with Ellendea Proffer)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=771fsa2fpGM (Ardis Publishers interviews 1999)
Cynthia Haven,"The Book that's rocking Russia: Ellendea Proffer's Brodsky Among Us is a bestseller," The Book Haven, 20 April 2015 Discussion of Russian publication of book with Corpus.
* https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/joseph-brodsky-darker-and-brighter/ Cynthia Haven, "Joseph Brodsky, Darker and Brighter: A spellbinding new biography rescues the poet from sentimentality and kitsch," ''The Nation'', March 24, 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proffer, Ellendea
1944 births
Living people
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
MacArthur Fellows
American translators
Russian–English translators
American women writers
21st-century American women