Memoirs: 1921-1941

Ilya Ehrenburg's portrayal of historical and literary events in the period between the two World Wars make Memoirs: 1921-1941 his most important work to date. This volume, by far the most candid and revealing writing by any Russian still living in the U.S.S.R., indicates Ehrenburg's stature as a major literary figure. Born in Kiev in 1891, the son of a wealthy Jewish family, Ehrenburg was exiled by the Czarist government at the age of 17. His wide-ranging travels began then, and since that time his life has alternated between periods spent in Europe, including a trip to America, and returns to Russia, where he has been both observer and participant in the massive political events since the Revolution. Memoirs: 1921-1941 deals largely with writers and artists whom Ehrenburg met in the capitals of Western Europe in the inter-war years. Ehrenburg knew virtually every European writer and artist of importance, and from his exposition of the exhilarating intellectual turmoil of the period comes a unique picture of those years - a social, cultural, and psychological document of our times.