RUSSIANS THEN AND NOW

The editor, a distinguished critic of Russian letters, has compiled a comprehensive anthology of Russian literature from the sixteenth century to the present. The aim is obvious -- to provide a brief compendium of highlights in Russian prose and poetry. With major selections a short biographical note appears. As a sampler this anthology will be ripe fruit for the paperback market -- something comparable to a Treasury of American Poetry or Prose. There is here the added purpose of weighing the accomplishments of the 19th century with the difficulties of channels for accomplishment after 1917. A timely publication, it will do much to reenforce the impression of high performance which has been characteristic of Russian literature.