Scope and Content Note
The records of the Am-Rus Literary Agency span the years 1927-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1945 to 1990. Through its affiliation with the Copyright Agency of the USSR (VAAP), the Am-Rus agency represented Soviet authors in negotiations with publishers and theatrical producers in the United States. Written in English and Russian, the records include correspondence, contracts, royalty statements, news clippings, printed matter, writings, and photographs. The collection has been organized in two series: Author File and Miscellany.
The Author File is arranged alphabetically by name of the author. The title of the author's work, in English translation, is generally given as well. The author list contains mostly literary figures, such as novelists, playwrights, poets, short story writers, and writers of children's books, although some journalists and scientific and medical writers are also represented. Prominent Soviet writers with substantial material in the Author File include Georgievich Aleksin, Chingiz Aĭtmatov, Anatoliĭ, M. M. Bakhtin, Mikhail Bulgakov, Korneĭ Chukovskiĭ, Ilʹi︠a︡ Ėrenburg, Konstantin Fedin, Maksim Gorky, I︠U︡riĭ Kazakov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava, Aleksei Feofilaktovich Pisemskiĭ, Andreĭ Platonovich Platonov, Ėdvard Radzinskiĭ, Valentin Grigorʹevich Rasputin, Mark Rozovskiĭ, Anatoliĭ Naumovich Rybakov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenit︠s︡yn, Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Georgiĭ Vladimov, and Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko.
With the exceptions of Aitmatov, Aleksin, Chukovskiĭ, and Rozovskiĭ, the Author File contains little correspondence between authors and the Am-Rus Agency. Most correspondence is between Am-Rus staff and American publishers, theaters, translators, VAAP, or Mezhdunarodnai︠a︡ Kniga, the official Soviet book import/export firm. Sometimes an author's wishes are transmitted to Am-Rus through correspondence from VAAP or Mezhdunarodnai︠a︡ Kniga; for example see “Vladimov” and that author's concerns about an English translation. The Author File also contains contracts, royalty statements, material from theater productions, reviews, and material on issues relating to English language translations and introductions. Am-Rus placed many of its files in labeled, letter-size manila envelopes. The contents of these envelopes have been kept together in a folder or paper sleeve. A photocopy of the envelope has been placed in the paper sleeve or folder.
The Miscellany is the smaller of the two series and includes a variety of material. Folders on the Copyright Agency of the USSR furnish financial information about the Am-Rus Agency. There are files for specific theater companies and publishers, extended correspondence with translators, and material on the publication of dictionaries and anthologies. The Am-Rus Agency occasionally helped with contract negotiations for the publication or production of American works in the Soviet Union, and the Miscellany series includes folders on “Books by American writers for publication in the USSR” and “Plays by American writers for production in the USSR.”