Volkoff, Vladimir 1932–2005

(Rholf Barbare, Victor Duloup)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 7, 1932, in Paris, France; died September 14, 2005, in Perigord, France. Author. Volkoff was an award-winning author of thrillers, science-fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction books. Although born in France, he was the son of Russian immigrants and his heritage influenced some of his later publications. After graduating from the Sorbonne in 1955, he joined the French Army reserve in 1957. He became an intelligence officer and was stationed in Algeria during that country's war of independence from France. After leaving the army as a lieutenant in 1962, Volkoff published his first novels, including L'agent triple (1962), the science fiction work Metro pour l'enfer (1963), which won the Jules Verne prize, and the pseudonymously written Les trois scorpions (1965; as Rholf Barbare) and La civilisation rrançaise (1970; as Victor Duloup). He lived in the United States from 1966 until 1977 working as a Russian and French teacher at Agnes Scott College in Georgia. Volkoff then began writing full time. Returning to France, he became a very prolific and successful author. He won the Chateaubriand prize for Le retournement (1979), the novel that first gained him a wide audience in France and was translated in 1981 as The Turnaround. Volkoff also won the Grand Prix Jean Giono in 1995 for his body of work. He was well known for his ambitious tetralogy Les humeurs de la mer (1980). Whether he was writing fantasy, science fiction, or espionage, Volkoff typically dealt with the theme that there is more behind reality than what meets the eye; he was also concerned with what he saw as the rootlessness of modern life. Among his many other notable books are Le rirebouchon du bon dieu (1982), Le bouclage (1991), La crevasse (1996), Operation barbarie (2001), and the only novel he would write in English, The Underdog Appeal: An Entertainment (1984). Volkoff was also notable for his nonfiction, which featured important figures in Russian history, including Tchaikovsky: A Self-Portrait (1975) and Vladimir, the Russian Viking (1984).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 83: French Novelists since 1960, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1989, pp. 314-321.

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), October 6, 2005, p. 67.