Luker, Nicholas 1945–

(N.J.L. Luker, Nicholas J.L. Luker, Nicholas John Lydgate Luker)

PERSONAL:

Born January 26, 1945, in Leeds, England; son of Bryan Walter Lydgate (a dental surgeon and naval officer) and Lois (a clinical educational psychologist) Luker; married Patricia Anne Stacey, August 14, 1968 (separated, January 3, 1983); children: Taisya Clare (deceased), Nathaniel Max. Ethnicity: "White European." Education: Attended University of Grenoble, 1966-67; Hertford College, Oxford, B.A. (with honors), 1968, M.A. (with honors), 1971; further graduate study at universities of Moscow and Leningrad, 1969-70; University of Nottingham, Ph.D., 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Nottingham, England. Office—Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, lecturer, 1970-88, senior lecturer in Russian, 1988—. Visiting Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, 1976, Dartmouth College, George Washington University, and Luther College, 1978 and 1985, and Universities of Auckland, Wellington, and Otago, 1993, 1996, and 1998. University of Otago, visiting fellow in Russian, 1991; visiting Universitas 21 fellow, Universities of Melbourne and Brisbane, 2005.

MEMBER:

British Universities Association of Slavists, Russian Language Undergraduate Study Committee (executive; London).

WRITINGS:

(Under name N.J.L. Luker) Alexander Grin, Bradda Books (Letchworth, England), 1973.

(Translator, with Barry Scherr) Alexander Grin, The Seeker of Adventure (short stories), Progress (Moscow, Russia), 1978.

Alexander Kuprin, Twayne Publishers (Boston, MA), 1978.

(Under name Nicholas J.L. Luker) Aleksandr Grin, the Forgotten Visionary, Oriental Research Partners (Newtonville, MA), 1982.

In Defence of a Reputation: Essays on the Early Prose of Mikhail Artsybashev, Astra Press (Nottingham, England), 1990.

(With Barry P. Scherr and Simon Ellis) The Shining World: Exploring Aleksandr Grin's Grinlandia, Astra Press (Nottingham, England), 2007.

Contributor to reference books. Contributor to scholarly journals in the United States, England, and New Zealand.

EDITOR

(And translator and author of introduction) An Anthology of Russian Neo-Realism: The "Znanie" School of Maxim Gorky, Ardis (Ann Arbor, MI), 1982.

(And author of introduction) Fifty Years On: Gorky and His Time, Astra Press (Nottingham, England), 1987.

(And translator and author of introduction) Alexander Grin: Selected Short Stories, Ardis (Ann Arbor, MI), 1987.

(And translator and author of introduction) From Furmanov to Sholokhov: An Anthology of the Classics of Socialist Realism, Ardis (Ann Arbor, MI), 1988.

(And contributor) The Russian Short Story, 1900-1917 (critical essays), Astra (Nottingham, England), 1990.

(And cotranslator and author of introduction) Yuri Miloslavsky, Urban Romances and Other Stories, Ardis (Ann Arbor, MI), 1994.

(And contributor) After the Watershed: Russian Prose, 1917-1927, Selected Essays, Astra Press (Nottingham, England), 1996.

(And contributor) Out of the Shadows: Neglected Works in Soviet Prose, Selected Essays, Astra Press (Nottingham, England), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nicholas Luker once told CA: "I took up the study of Russian relatively late, having grown tired of French, which had ceased to offer sufficient intellectual stimulus. It was at Oxford that I decided to specialize in Russian and, if possible, to continue after graduation with research. By far the most formative academic influences upon me were those of the late Professor John Fennell, fellow of University College and New College, Oxford, and the late Max Hayward, fellow of St. Antony's College. It was the latter who suggested that I undertake research into the Russian and Soviet prose writer Alexander Grin.

"My great and abiding love is foreign travel, when I can afford it. My passion for foreign experience was, I feel, fueled by an adolescence spent partly in South Africa. The long voyage out via the Mediterranean and Suez, the Red Sea and Zanzibar, when I was ten, remains deeply etched on my mind. In a professional capacity I have visited both west and east coasts of the United States (several times), western Canada, Australia and New Zealand (many times), and many parts of the former USSR more than a dozen times, including Central Asia, the Black Sea, and eastern Siberia. In addition, I have visited most countries of western Europe, Tunisia, Malta, Greece and her islands, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South America, Western and American Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti and French Polynesia, Easter Island, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, La Reunion Island and Mauritius, Iceland, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times Literary Supplement, December 31, 1982, Georgette Donchin, review of An Anthology of Russian Neo-Realism: The "Znanie" School of Maxim Gorky, p. 1446.