Dr. Zhivago, the CIA edition

A new book says the CIA paid to publish the Russian edition of the novel, which enabled author Boris Pasternak to win the Nobel Prize.

Pasternak had been nominated for the Nobel Prize for his poetry every year between 1946 and 1950. The novel, which after the Italian edition appeared in English and French, received almost universal acclaim abroad, rekindling interest in Pasternak as a potential laureate. In 1958, he was nominated again for the prize by the previous year's winner, the French writer Albert Camus.

But there was still no Russian-language edition of "Doctor Zhivago," and the Swedish Academy required that any work under consideration be submitted in its original language, Tolstoy said. Soon a Russian "Zhivago" appeared at the academy, bearing the name of Feltrinelli as publisher. But the Italian house had not printed it.

Via A&L Daily.