Il'f and Petrov

[Steven Hill]

Dear colleagues:

Any specialists in Il'f and Petrov out there might know the answer to two little
mysteries.

1.  In Il'f and Petrov's "Sobranie sochinenii" (ed. Dement'ev, Kataev, Simonov, Galanov;
5 vols., izd. GIKhL,  1961- ), volume 4 contains "Odnoetazhnaia Amerika" and related
texts.   In at least one library copy of  volume 4, it LACKS pages  529-564 (i.e., 36
consecutive pages).

Since the binding looks intact and undamaged, the incomplete volume does not appear
to have been vandalized by a naughty Illinois student with a razor blade. I note also that
all the earlier pages near the front end of vol. 4 appear to be intact and in proper
sequence.

One must conclude either that the Soviet printer committed a major binding mistake, or
else a naughty Soviet censor decided in his wisdom that pp. 529-64 should not see the
light of day, for some obscure reason...

2.  I recently saw a reference to Il'f and Petrov's  description of film director S
M Eisenstein's Moscow apartment, supposedly published in
"Odnoetazhnaia Amerika" (or perhaps in a related text published in the
same volume with "1-etazh.Amer."?).  But in more than one edition of this
travel account (includ. Charles Malamud's Engl. trans., re-titled "Little
Golden America"), I can't seem to find any  description of the Eisensteinian
residence.  Perhaps I missed it, or perhaps it was actually published
somewhere else...

Gratefully,
Steven P Hill (Univ. of Illinois, USA).
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