Ilya Ilf, known as the “Mark Twain of Soviet literature,” died yesterday at the age of 40. He had been suffering from tuberculosis and had spent considerable of his time in recent months in a sanitarium.
He was best known to English readers through his “Little Golden Calf,” written in conjunction with Eugene Petrov, his inseparable collaborator, and published in the United States. “Twelve Chairs” was among the others of their works. They wrote satirically in a serious-comic vein.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.