MIKHAIL BULGAKOV, playwright, novelist, and short story writer was born in Kiev in 1891. He was graduated from medical school, practiced medicine for a short while, and then abandoned it for writing. Choosing to remain in Russia after the Revolution, Bulgakov continually had difficulty with censorship and by 1930 was barred from publication or production. The Life of Monsieur de Molière, completed in 1933, was not published until 1962, twenty-two years after Bulgakov’s death. His monumental novel The Master and Margarita appeared in this country in 1967 and was hailed as a masterpiece. Other works available here are Heart of a Dog, The Fatal Eggs, and the plays Flight and Bliss.

MIRRA GINSBURG, born in Russia, translated The Fatal Eggs and Other Soviet Satire, in which the title story is by Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, as well as Bulgakov’s plays Flight and Bliss. Her translations of works by Isaac Babel, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and others have appeared in anthologies and such magazines as Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and Commentary.