They’re publishing one chapter a month, and are just about at the halfway point after bringing out number 23 in July. So in 2013 (assuming and assuming), the full text will be available . . .

Ilf & Petrov are two of the best Russian writers of the twentieth century. If you don’t believe me, read from which we’ll be bringing out in December. (And which is mentioned a half-dozen times in Dubravka Ugresic’s Nobody’s Home.)

Or just read Little Golden America—I’m firing up my printer as I type . . .

In 1935, satirical writers Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov drove from New York to the Mexican border and back in a Ford. They spoke only schoolboy English and couldn’t drive, but these obstacles weren’t allowed to stand in the way of their commission from Pravda newspaper to write a book on the United States. Accompanied by a left-wing American couple — the wife driving and the Russian-speaking husband interpreting — they applied their comic talents to such strange phenomena as drugstores, ham and eggs, striptease shows and chewing gum advertisements.

More than 70 years later, a crew from Channel One repeated Ilf and Petrov’s journey for a new documentary series, also titled One-Story America, which starts Feb. 11.

(Unfortunately, The Moscow News expired and “is pending renewal or deletion.” Not so good . . .)

Ilf and Petrov were an amazing duo writing in the 30s, and are most well-known for (available from Northwestern) and The Golden Calf (which Helen Anderson and Konstantin Gurevich are retranslating for Open Letter—more on that in the near future).

Princeton Architectural Press reissued in October 2006, and in a remarkable testament to the hipness of Entertainment Weekly, this was featured on the EW “Must List” shortly after publication.