Sally Laird

Sally Ann Laird (2 May 1956 – 15 July 2010) was a British editor and translator who specialised in Russian literature.

Sally Laird
Born(1956-05-02)2 May 1956[1]
Barnet[1]
Died15 July 2010(2010-07-15) (aged 54)[1]
Occupation(s)writer and translator
Children1[1]

Education

Laird was born in the London Borough of Barnet and attended Camden School for Girls.[1][2] She was a student of Russian and philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford.[1][3] She was editor of The Isis Magazine at Oxford.[1] Laird went on to Harvard University, on a Harkness Fellowship, where she gained an MA in Soviet studies in 1981.[1][3] As part of her Oxford degree, she spent a year at Voronezh State University.[1][2][3]

Career

Laird worked for Amnesty International during the 1980s.[1][2] She was USSR editor for the magazine Index on Censorship between June 1986 and November 1988, when she became editor-in-chief.[1][2][4] She held the job until August 1989.

After leaving the magazine she worked as a translator and editor, and reviewed books for The Observer.[2] She translated a series of Russian novels.[4] The Washington Post reviewed her translation of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's The Time: Night: "Sally Laird's version, although a bit British and a bit bowdlerized, conveys the wonderful fluidity and occasional frenzy of the monologue "written" by Petrushevskaya's narrator".[5]

Laird became project manager of the Central European Classics series, brought out by Central European University Press.[1][6]

She contributed to Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag, and wrote Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers, the latter based on interviews she carried out between 1987 and 1994.[4][7]

In 1993, Laird moved to Denmark, living at Ebeltoft.[1][4] She learnt Danish and worked as a translator between English and Danish.[1]

Personal life

Laird and her husband Mark Le Fanu had one daughter.[1][4] Laird died in 2010.[1][4]

Writing
  • Translation of The Queue, by Vladimir Sorokin (Readers International, 1988; New York Review Books, 2008; ISBN 9781590172742)
  • Translation of The Time: Night, by Ludmila Petrushevskaya (Pantheon Books, 1994)
  • Translation of Immortal Love: Stories, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Pantheon Books, 1996)[8]
  • Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers (Oxford University Press, 1999)
  • Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag, ed Simeon Vilensky, (Indiana University Press, 1999)

References
  1. Kellaway, Kate (10 August 2010). "Sally Laird obituary: Writer and translator of Russian literature". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  2. Le Fanu, Mark (2 August 2010). "Sally Laird: a tribute". Prospect. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  3. Sorokin, V. (1988). The Queue. Readers International. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-930523-45-9. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  4. Chandler, Robert (19 July 2010). "Sally Laird 1956 – 2010". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  5. Woll, Josephine (25 December 1994). "MOTHERING RUSSIA". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  6. Ash, T.G.; Dahrendorf, R.; Davy, R.; Winter, E. (1995). Freedom for Publishing, Publishing for Freedom: The Central and East European Publishing Project. Central European University Press Books. Central European University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-85866-055-4. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  7. Rosenberg, Karen (18 October 1999). "Their Myths and Ours: Voices of Russian Literature". Nation. 269 (12): 28–30.
  8. Thomas, D M (16 June 1996). "Tales out of Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
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