From the Cincinnati Reds to the Moscow Reds

“Irwin Weil has written a vibrant, nostalgic, strikingly sweet account of a life deeply enmeshed in Jewish, American, and above all Russian culture. Anecdote after heartfelt anecdote, he offers portraits of exemplary incidents and famous people, from Renato Poggiolo and Philip Rahv to Kornei Chukovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. When others engage in ideological quarrel, we watch Irv spread good will. By the sheer power of warmth and charm, he passes unscathed through morally fraught situations. For those in the field of Russian Studies, the memoir will powerfully evoke what it was like in decades gone by." —Gary Saul Morson, Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities, Northwestern University -- Gary Saul Morson, Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities
“Irv Weil’s congenial oral biography is a cameo of Midwestern Jewish-American life in the 20th century, in which baseball, theater, music, literary classics and the heroic achievements of Russian culture emerge as anchors in a displaced and increasingly globalized era. Its thumbnail sketches of famous émigrés and glimpses of Soviet life in the 1960s help explain why Weil has been so successful as a Russian-American mediator for so many decades, from strolls with Kornei Chukovsky outside Moscow to hosting Shostakovich and Lina Prokofieva at Northwestern. Weil’s distinctive mark on the Slavic field, personal and organizational, has been wonderfully captured.” —Caryl Emerson, Princeton University -- Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
“In an engaging and moving way, Irwin Weil reflects upon his almost ninety-year existence (including half a century as professor of Russian at Northwestern University). Indeed, the most salient feature of Weil’s memoirs is that when he talks about his personal and professional life, he speaks not only about himself but also about two generations of scholar-teachers who, like Weil, had no idea that they would fall under the sway of Mother Russia, or that they would spend their lives professing her charms. . . .In writing his recollections, Weil expresses the hope that he has affected “for the better” the lives of both Russians and Americans. As evidenced by From the Cincinnati Reds to the Moscow Reds, he has. Indeed, Weil’s examined life has been well worth living.” —Thomas Gaiton Marullo, University of Notre Dame, The Russian Review (April 2016, Vol. 75, No. 2) -- Thomas Gaiton Marullo, University of Notre Dame, The Russian Review (April 2016, Vol. 75, No. 2)