From the Cincinnati Reds to the Moscow Reds: The Memoirs of Irwin Weil (Jews of Russia & Eastern Europe and Their Legacy) - Hardcover

Weil, Irwin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1618113941 ISBN 13: 9781618113948

Publisher: Academic Studies Press, 2015

Synopsis

This book brings together a lifetime of experiences told by a beloved member of the field of Slavic languages and literature - Irwin Weil. During the Soviet era, Irwin frequently visited and corresponded with outstanding Russian cultural figures, such as Vladimir Nabokov, Korney Chukovsky, and Dmitrii Shostakovich. His deep love of the Russian people and their culture has touched the lives of countless students, in particular at Northwestern University, where he has taught since 1966. It is these stories of an unassuming Jewish American from Cincinnati, Ohio who rubbed shoulders with some of the most prominent thinkers, writers, and musicians in the Soviet Union that are presented for the first time in this volume.

About this title

About the Author:

Irwin Weil was born in 1928 in Cincinnati, Ohio of German Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. His father Sidney was a former owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Initially majoring in economics at the University of Chicago, he was drawn to Slavic studies after discovering Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov in a required literature course and being (in his words) "knocked for a loop." He reports that he ran to a bookstore, picked up a copy of Crime and Punishment, read it in two days, and resolved to learn the language of such a great body of literature.

Weil received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1948 and his master's degree in Slavic Studies in 1951. After three years of working on a Soviet census for the U.S. Library of Congress, Weil began his PhD at Harvard University, where he had received a Ford Foundation fellowship to work toward his doctorate in Slavic Studies. After receiving the degree in 1960, he taught at Brandeis University.

While at Brandeis, Weil was a professor of Russian literature and linguistics. He was influential in the development and growth of the Slavic Studies program at Brandeis. Weil's first major work - a dissertation on the development of the writing style of Maksim Gorky - was completed in 1958. His other works include Notes on the Contemporary Soviet Literary Scene and Literary Activities.

Tony Brown is an Associate Professor of Russian at Brigham Young University where he has taught since 2004. Brown received his MA and PhD degrees in Russian and Second Language Acquisition at Bryn Mawr College. His research interests include second language acquisition, language policy, and the cultural history of Russia. Brown also is the author/co-author of articles published in venues, such as Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, Slavic and East European Journal, Russian Language Journal, and Language Policy. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

Review:

“In an engaging and moving way, Irwin Weil reflects upon his almost ninety-year existence (including half a century as professor of Russian at Northwestern University). Indeed, the most salient feature of Weil’s memoirs is that when he talks about his personal and professional life, he speaks not only about himself but also about two generations of scholar-teachers who, like Weil, had no idea that they would fall under the sway of Mother Russia, or that they would spend their lives professing her charms. . . .In writing his recollections, Weil expresses the hope that he has affected “for the better” the lives of both Russians and Americans. As evidenced by From the Cincinnati Reds to the Moscow Reds, he has. Indeed, Weil’s examined life has been well worth living.” (Thomas Gaiton Marullo, University of Notre Dame, The Russian Review (April 2016, Vol. 75, No. 2))

“Irwin Weil has written a vibrant, nostalgic, strikingly sweet account of a life deeply enmeshed in Jewish, American, and above all Russian culture. Anecdote after heartfelt anecdote, he offers portraits of exemplary incidents and famous people, from Renato Poggiolo and Philip Rahv to Kornei Chukovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. When others engage in ideological quarrel, we watch Irv spread good will. By the sheer power of warmth and charm, he passes unscathed through morally fraught situations. For those in the field of Russian Studies, the memoir will powerfully evoke what it was like in decades gone by." (Gary Saul Morson, Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities)

“Irv Weil’s congenial oral biography is a cameo of Midwestern Jewish-American life in the 20th century, in which baseball, theater, music, literary classics and the heroic achievements of Russian culture emerge as anchors in a displaced and increasingly globalized era. Its thumbnail sketches of famous émigrés and glimpses of Soviet life in the 1960s help explain why Weil has been so successful as a Russian-American mediator for so many decades, from strolls with Kornei Chukovsky outside Moscow to hosting Shostakovich and Lina Prokofieva at Northwestern. Weil’s distinctive mark on the Slavic field, personal and organizational, has been wonderfully captured.” (Caryl Emerson, Princeton University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Academic Studies Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1618113941
• ISBN 13: 9781618113948
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Brown Tony