Across the Ussuri Kray
In this collection of travel writing by famed Russian explorer and naturalist Vladimir K. Arsenyev (1872-1930), readers are shuttled back to the turn of the 20th century when the Russian Empire was reeling from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and vulnerable to its Far Eastern neighbors. What began as an expedition to survey the region’s infrastructure for the Russian military turned into an adventure through one of the most ethnically and ecologically diverse territories in Russia. Encountering the disappearing indigenous cultures of the Nanai and Udege, engaging the help of Korean farmers and Chinese hunters, and witnessing the beginning of indomitable Russian settlement, Arsenyev documents the lives and customs of the region’s inhabitants and their surroundings. Translated from the Russian with more than 300 annotations by Jonathan C. Slaght.
Reviewed by The New Yorker, LA Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and others.
“[This] travelogue is both romantic and closely observed, and [Arsenyev] is an appealing narrator.” – The New Yorker
“Excellent and accessible… Slaght follows in Arsenyev’s snowy, muddy footsteps ― preserving, but also teaching others to identify and appreciate what is unique. Thus the pleasure of reading his new translation lies in the details, which are abundant but never frivolous.” – LA Review of Books
“A translation that, in its fluency and readability, stands comparison with English-language classics of the genre.” – Asian Review of Books
Buy from other places: Indiana University Press, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Farley’s Bookshop, and elsewhere.
Winter Ecology of the Amur Tiger
This classic Russian monograph, originally published in Russian in 1987 and translated into English by Misha Jones and Jonathan C Slaght in 2012, contains results of the most extensive snow-tracking of Amur (or Siberian) tigers ever conducted.
Russian biologists Anatolii Yudakov and Igor Nikolaev tracked Amur tigers for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers through the snow in the southern Russian Far East from 1970-1973, collecting information on movements and behavior. This updated edition features a Foreword by preeminent Amur tiger biologist Dr. Dale Miquelle, explaining why this is one of the most important publications on Amur tigers written in the 20th century. Out of Print. See a review by John Seidensticker of Smithsonian Institution here.
Jonathan C. Slaght 