Invading the American Canon

This is a ground-breaking study of the forces that brought Russian literature to the American public. Maguire takes her readers behind the scenes, introducing a cast of diverse, unforgettable characters: writers, translators, editors, publishers, agents, booksellers, critics, and scholars. Sometimes collaborating, sometimes clashing, they navigated daunting obstacles in a decades-long process that changed American literature. Featuring a lively, engaging style, this book represents a significant contribution to literary and translation studies, and, importantly, to the ever-evolving, ever-fraught American history of immigration. * Carol Apollonio, Research Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Duke University, USA * This is an engaging and authoritative history of Russian literature in translation in the United States, and how Russian literature came to occupy such a central place in the American canon of translated literature. Maguire anchors her story on the remarkable career of Nicholas Wreden, and as her account shows, given Wreden’s outsized role in popularizing Russian literature, it is puzzling that this is the first time his story has been told. * Ronald Meyer, Harriman Institute and Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University, USA * Maguire’s meticulously researched, informative and comprehensive study creates an impressive account of translation history of Russophone literature in America while also paying attention to translators’ literary taste, ideological beliefs, and networks. This book provides a broad understanding of Russophone literary history in its global context. Insightful and engaging, Invading the American Canon will be of significant interest to scholars and students specializing in translation studies, Russian Studies, comparative literature, and cultural history. * Alexandra Smith, Reader in Russian Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK * This marvelous contribution to the emerging field of Translator Studies, written by a sensitive British scholar during her research stay at Princeton and dedicated to Princeton’s fireflies, vividly captures the paradox that translators’ lives and artistic strategies – when considered within broad historical and cultural contexts – are no less important or interesting than the works they translate and bring to their respective audiences. In a way, Muireann Maguire discovers and materializes a new world (in the New World) of “invisible” translators who sought to create (make, unmake, and remake) the flavor and meaning of Russian literature for American readers across different historical periods. Pushkin once called translators the 'post-horses of Enlightenment.' Invading the American Canon shows that they are more like modest but beautiful fireflies in the dark night who, in Frost’s words, 'achieve at times a very star-like start.' * Ilya Vinitsky, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University, USA *