About Translations
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich exists in six English translations:
A. Ralph Parker (New York: Dutton, 1963)
B. Max Hayward and Ronald Hingley (New York: Praeger, 1963)
C. Bela Von Block (New York: Lancer Books, 1963). Out of print.
D. Thomas P. Whitney (New York: Fawcett, 1963). Out of print.
E. Gillon Aitken (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971). Out of print.
F. H. T. Willetts (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991)
A through E are all based on an early censored version of the book and are not recommended. Only F is an authorized translation, based on the final uncensored version, and can be recommended. It is in print in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.
Matryona’s Home [or Matryona’s House] exists in three English translations:
A. Michael Glenny (Stories and Prose Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971)
B. Paul W. Blackstock (We Never Make Mistakes, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1963)). Out of print.
C. H.T. Willetts (Clarence Brown’s Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader, Penguin: 1985)
C is recommended (available in The Solzhenitsyn Reader).
In The First Circle [or First Circle] exists in three English translations:
A. Thomas P. Whitney (New York: Harper & Row, 1968). Out of print.
B. Michael Guybon (London: Collins & Harvill Press, 1968). “Michael Guybon” was a pseudonym for a trio of translators—Max Hayward, Manya Harari, and Michael Glenny. Their names are credited in later Collins Harvill reprints.
C. Harry T. Willetts (New York: HarperCollins, 2009).
A and B are based on a censored early version of the novel and are not recommended. Only C is based on the final 96-chapter version, and can be recommended. It is in print in paperback and e-book.
The Nobel Lecture exists in six English translations:
A. F. D. Reeve (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972). Out of print.
B. Nicholas Bethell (Stenvalley Press, 1973). Out of print.
C. “members of the BBC Russian Service” (London: The Bodley Head, 1972). Out of print.
D. Thomas P. Whitney (New York: Harper & Row, 1972). Out of print.
E. Uncredited Nobel Foundation translation (Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993); also at NobelPrize.org.
F. Alexis Klimoff (East & West, New York: Harper & Row, 1980)
F is recommended (available in The Solzhenitsyn Reader).