More faithful to the original text and its deeply resonant humor, this new translation of The Twelve Chairs brings Ilf and Petrovs Russian classic fully to life.

200 of his photographs.Winner, 2012 Northern California Book Award for Fiction in Translation Long after Ilf's death, his daughter had found and published ca. In 1929, Yevgeni Petrov lent him 800 rubles for a camera, and then jokingly regretted that he had lost not only his money but also a friend and co-writer, as Ilf stopped writing and spent most of his time on photography. They married in Moscow in 1924, and had a daughter Aleksandra born in 1935. In 1921 in Odesa, Ilf met the love of his life, Maria Nikolayevna Tarasenko (1904–1981). However, the suicide version is still used by some Western biographers. Petrov immediately published a denial in Pravda called 'An Answer to Fascist Slanderers', pointing out that his death was caused by illness and that nothing extraordinary happened during the convention, with a full transcript of the proceedings. Days later, a Nazi propaganda newspaper, Der Angriff, published an article claiming that Ilf committed suicide following a scathing critique from the Soviet government during a writers' convention. He thought it was in remission, but he was diagnosed with it again during his trip to America, and he died not long after returning. Ilf had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in the 1920s. Ilf also had a passion for photography, but this was not fully appreciated until years after his death, when his daughter discovered his photograph albums.

From 1932 to 1937, they also wrote pieces for major publications such as Pravda, Literaturnaya Gazeta and Krokodil. In 1928, they were both let go, due to staff reductions, but they were able to find work at Chudak, a literary journal that provided a start for many Soviet writers and artists. It was there that he met his writing partner, Petrov. His contributions consisted mostly of satirical pieces. In 1923, he relocated to Moscow and took employment at the newspaper Gudok (roughly 'Toot!', meaning the locomotive horn noise), a publication for railway workers.

After the Revolution, he began working as a journalist, editing several humor magazines, and joined the Odesa Union of Poets. He graduated from a technical school in 1913 and held various positions, including time at the telephone company and a military plant.

The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf