Berberova, Nina Nikolaevna

Nina Berberova, 1901-1993, Russian émigré writer, author of Kursiv Moĭ, friend of the poet Vladislav Khodasevich.

Nina Nikolaevna Berberova was born on August 8, 1901 (July 26, 1901, old style) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her autobiography, Kursiv moi (first published in English as The Italics are Mine ), details her life as an emigre and writer up to approximately 1957.

After living in Paris for twenty five years, Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950. She began her academic career in 1958 at Yale University. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several povesti, critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton University, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. For Berberova "retirement" meant visiting as a lecturer at Cornell, Columbia, Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania, teaching during the summer in the Russian School at Middlebury College, and writing. During these years she was awarded honorary degrees from Glasboro State College (1980), Middlebury College (1983), and Yale University (1992).

In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia. She lived there until she died September 27, 1993 from complications from a fall.

Readers may consult Nina Berberova Papers, GEN MSS 182 for further description of Nina Berberova's life and work.

Nina Nikolaevna Berberova was born on August 8, 1901 (July 26, 1901, old style) in St. Petersburg, Russia, the only daughter of Nikolai Ivanovich Berberov, a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance, and Natalia Ivanovna Berberova, née Karaulova. The story of Berberova's life as a Russian emigre writer in Berlin, Paris and the United States is detailed up to approximately 1957 in her autobiography, Kursiv moi, first published in English as The Italics Are Mine by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969.

Berberova became involved with the literary and artistic circles of St. Petersburg after she joined Nikolai Gumilev's "Poets' Guild" in 1921. She made her literary debut in February 1922 with the publication of a poem in the journal Ushkuiniki ( The River Pirates ), a small collection issued to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Serapion Brothers, a literary coterie of about ten aspiring young writers.

The persecution of intellectuals accelerated after the Revolution, and in June 1922, Berberova emigrated from Russia with the poet Vladislav Khodasevich (1886-1939). The couple moved to Berlin, then the literary capital of the Russian exile community. For the next three years, Berberova and Khodasevich lived in forty-two different rooms in various cities around Europe, including one summer in Belfast, before settling in Paris in 1925. She left Khodasevich in 1932, but they remained close friends until his death in 1939.

Many of the salient events and relationships of Berberova's life coincide with her stay in France, where she lived for twenty-five years. The Paris years were difficult but productive. To make ends meet, Berberova worked at a number of odd jobs. From 1925 to 1940, she was on the staff of the daily emigre newspaper, Poslednie novosti ( The Latest News ), in which she published the popular cycle of short stories known collectively as Biiankurskie prazdniki ( The Billancourt Holidays ). In 1938, Berberova moved to Longchêne, a village outside Paris, with her second husband, the artist Nikolai Makeev. They parted on unfriendly terms nine years later. In 1947, she moved back to Paris where she helped to establish the weekly newspaper Russkaia mysl', which is still published today.

In 1950, with the realization that World War II had taken its toll on the Russian exile world in Paris, Berberova decided to emigrate to the United States. For the next eight years she lived in New York City, held odd jobs by day and studied English at night. She also wrote an occasional poem or book review, edited books for the Chekhov Publishing House in New York, and served on the editorial board of the Russian literary journal Mosty ( Bridges ). Difficulties in obtaining a visa prompted Berberova to marry musician George Kochevitsky in 1954, so that she could remain in the US. The couple officially divorced in 1983.

In the United States, Berberova embarked on her academic career. In 1958 she was hired to teach Russian at Yale University. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several "povesti," various critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton University, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. For Berberova "retirement" meant being a visiting lecturer at Cornell, Columbia, Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania, teaching during the summer in the Russian School at Middlebury College, and writing. During these years she was awarded honorary degrees from Glasboro State College (1980), Middlebury College (1983), and Yale University (1992). Friends and colleagues at Yale University commemorated her 90th birthday with a dinner in the Beinecke Library in 1991.

Berberova is a published writer in many genres: short stories, novels, plays, biographies, poetry, translations, reportage. She herself was the first to admit that her most successful fictional genre was the long short story, or "povest'" in Russian. Six of her best stories were published separately between 1934 and 1941 in the Parisian journal Sovremennye zapiski . In 1949 they were published in a collection entitled, Oblegchenie uchasti ( The Easing of Fate ). The backdrop for much of Berberova's fiction is the everyday life of the down and out Russian emigres, struggling to adapt to their new life outside Russia. Contemporary critics noted influences of the language and style of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Zoshchenko in these stories. Berberova published the first biography of Tchaikovsky in 1936, which caused a sensation with its open reference to the musician's homosexuality. Warner Brothers and Sovkino produced a film about Tchaikovsky in 1968 based on this book. Her autobiography, Kursiv moi is widely regarded as her greatest literary achievement and most notable contribution to Russian literature, largely for its information on whom she knew--virtually all of the writers and artists on the Russian intellectual scene. In 1982, she published Zheleznaia zhenshchina ( The Iron Woman ), a biography of Moura Budberg, mistress of Maxim Gorky and H.G. Wells. Her last book, Liudi i lozhi: russkie masony xx stoletiia was published in 1986. Berberova continued to conduct extensive research and write in her advancing years.

Nevertheless, Berberova remained relatively unknown as a writer in the West until she was in her eighties. In 1985, Hubert Nyssen, director of the French publishing house Actes Sud, obtained international rights to all of Berberova's writings. Her works were issued in French translation and they became bestsellers in France. As a result, Actes Sud began to translate and publish her works in at least twenty-two languages. After spending most of her career in relative obscurity, Berberova became a celebrity. As a measure of this, she was invited by the Union of Writers in 1989 to visit her homeland, which she did after a sixty-seven year absence.

In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia. She lived there until she died September 27, 1993 from complications from a fall.