Humorist. She is regarded as the foremost chronicler of Russian emigre life in Paris in the years following the 1917 Revolution. Her sharply comic tales feature Field Marshals reduced to driving taxicabs, ex-noblemwomen dressing up as gypsies to serve tea in cafes, and other castaway members of Russia's former elite, all of whom absurdly cling to the affectations of their old way of life. Because she satirized the aimlessness and sterility of Russian life in exile, Teffi was one of the very few emigre writers whose work was published in the Soviet Union. She was born Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya in St. Petersburg, into a distinguished gentry family. Her first humorous stories appeared in 1901. By the start of World War I Teffi was Russia's most famous female author; Czar Nicholas II was a fan, and brands of perfume and candy were named for her. Liberal in her political beliefs, she drew the line at communism and settled in Paris in 1919, where she focused her acute powers of observation on her fellow emigres. Almost all of her hundreds of stories were written for newspapers. A collection of her best tales, "All About Love", was published in 1985 and translated into several languages.
Humorist. She is regarded as the foremost chronicler of Russian emigre life in Paris in the years following the 1917 Revolution. Her sharply comic tales feature Field Marshals reduced to driving taxicabs, ex-noblemwomen dressing up as gypsies to serve tea in cafes, and other castaway members of Russia's former elite, all of whom absurdly cling to the affectations of their old way of life. Because she satirized the aimlessness and sterility of Russian life in exile, Teffi was one of the very few emigre writers whose work was published in the Soviet Union. She was born Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya in St. Petersburg, into a distinguished gentry family. Her first humorous stories appeared in 1901. By the start of World War I Teffi was Russia's most famous female author; Czar Nicholas II was a fan, and brands of perfume and candy were named for her. Liberal in her political beliefs, she drew the line at communism and settled in Paris in 1919, where she focused her acute powers of observation on her fellow emigres. Almost all of her hundreds of stories were written for newspapers. A collection of her best tales, "All About Love", was published in 1985 and translated into several languages.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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