The Biography and Bibliography of Ivan Antonovich Efremov Expanded with New Materials [Review: Efremov I.A. Women in My Life: Novels; Letters. Moscow, Izd. Yukhnevskaya S.A., 2022. 480 p. A Retro Collection of Adventure and Science Fiction. Ser.: Collections. Complete Works by I. Efremov. Vol. VIII. (In Russian)

Abstract

This article reviews the first-ever published materials from the archive of Taisia Iosifovna Yukhnevskaya, the late wife of Ivan Antonovich Efremov (1908–1972). The focus is on I.A. Efremov’s collection of autobiographical and erotic short novels titled “Women in My Life”. These fourteen stories (one of which is incomplete) are believed to have been written between the 1950s and 1960s. They fit perfectly with the style of the writer, for whom there was no division between the physical aspects of love and the spiritual development of a normal person. The short novels contain a wealth of personal details, thus offering a new and deeper perspective on the early years of the rising geologist and social thinker. In terms of fiction, they continue the 1940s series “Tales of the Extraordinary” and conform to the genre characteristics of romantic storytelling, as well as colonial and Western novels. There are clear similarities and plot parallels with I.A. Efremov’s other novels such as “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale”, “The Bull’s Hour”, “Razor’s Edge”, and “Thais of Athens”. An interesting finding is that the letters between I.A. Efremov and his wife bring out an unforeseen side of the writer’s character, especially his ability to inject humor, which is a departure from his usual literary approach.