American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

In Memoriam: Carl R. Proffer, 1938-1984Author(s): David LoweSource: The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 531-532Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/307640 .

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IN MEMORIAM

CARL R. PROFFER, 1938-1984

On September 24 of this year Carl Proffer passed from life into history, leaving behind grieving family and friends as well as a legacy of hard work, audacity, and accomplishment. Future historians of Russian culture will recall Carl as the co-founder of Ardis Publishers. Like many of Carl's actions, the establishment of Ardis sprang from generous impulses that had unexpected results. Carl and his wife Ellendea conceived of the first Ardis books as special gifts for very special friends in the Soviet Union. In the early days Ardis operated literally from the Proffers' kitchen sink, and few of Carl's colleagues believed that he and Ellendea would be able to nurse their brainchild out of its infancy, let alone into maturity. To the amaze- ment of American academia and the outraged dismay of Soviet literary officialdom, however, Ardis soon grew into the largest publisher of Russian literature and works about Russian literature outside the Soviet Union. Time called Ardis "an indispensable press," and rightly so. Authors who have published original works with Ardis, to cite but the cream of the cream, include Aksenov, Bitov, Iskander, Sokolov, Aleshkovsky, Brodsky, Voinovich, Lisnyanskaya, and Miloslavsky. Carl is now gone, but Ardis is still with us; managed by Ellendea, it will continue to add important new pages to Russian literary history.

Ardis may be Carl's grandest gift to posterity, but his achievements as a scholar, translator, editor, and essayist were also remarkable. A complete listing of the books and articles bearing Carl's name in one or more of the above-cited capacities would run to several pages and cover two centuries of Russian literature. He was at his best, perhaps, in expository prose. One of his later pieces, "A Disabled Literature" (New Republic, 14 February 1981, pp. 27-34), surveys the contemporary Russian literary scene with wit and insight, leaving one hungry for more. In fact, during the last months of his life Carl spent many hours a day putting down on paper his recollec- tions of Russian writers he had known over the previous two decades. He was unable to finish the manuscript, but one hopes that Ellendea may see fit to edit it into publishable form.

SEEJ, Vol. 28, No. 4 (1984) 531

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532 Slavic and East European Journal

Carl's students will remember him with affection and admiration. His lectures, couched in a relaxed, often ironic style, contained mountains of precise, useful information. The reading lists, meanwhile, were daunting. Graduate students knew Carl as a Socratic guide whose syllabi often demanded late nights with microfilm readers, old orthography, and unpub- lished manuscripts. Carl inculcated in his students a respect for common sense supported by thorough knowledge of detail, a suspicion of secondary sources and established opinion, and a pronounced animosity toward cant, cliches, and biographical hagiography. In short, Carl valued and applauded independence of mind.

For those who had the chance to know Carl well, he was a rare and wonderful friend. On the surface one often saw what looked like reticence and amused detachment, but underneath lay concern, compassion, and love. In a crisis of any kind Carl's immediate response was to offer help, whether in the form of a loan, a job, a letter of recommendation, or a soft shoulder. It was testimony to his nobility of spirit that although people occasionally abused Carl's generosity, he never ceased displaying it. In the midst of his own terrible and terrifying battle with cancer, Carl spent much time dealing sympathetically with other peoples' problems and worries, all of which paled to insignificance in comparison with his own.

Carl's death was a crushing loss for those who knew him and loved him, but one can take some slight solace in the knowledge that Carl often pro- claimed his contentment with his life. He had no regrets about things done or undone, and if he had been given his life to live over, he would not have done anything differently. Russian literature, the Slavic profession, and Carl's colleagues, students, friends, and family mourn his passing but have every reason to celebrate his life and lasting accomplishments, particularly Ardis.

David Lowe, Vanderbilt University

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