Lourie, Richard

Lourie, Richard

(1940– ) translator, literary critic, novelist; born in Cambridge, Mass. Known for his extensive critical analysis of Russian dissident author Andrew Sinyavsky, he was a prolific translator of Russian and Polish texts, including the works of Soviet writer Vladimir Voinovich and Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz. He was founder of Kontakt, a company specializing in Russian/American publishing, and was editor in chief of Governor Mario Cuomo's project to translate Abraham Lincoln's writings into Polish. Recipient of the 1971 Joseph Henry Jackson Award for fiction, he often wrote plots involving cold war topics.