Rita Rait-Kovaleva

Rita Yakovlevna Rait-Kovaleva, born Chernomordik (19 April 1898 – 29 December 1988) was a Soviet literary translator and writer, particularly known for her translations of J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut into Russian. Rait-Kovaleva's translation of The Catcher in the Rye (as Over the Abyss in Rye) achieved initial popularity amid novel's success among Soviet readers during Khrushchev Thaw.

Rait-Kovaleva received the Order of Friendship of Peoples and the Thornton Wilder Prize from the Columbia University's Translation Center.

Life Born into a Jewish family in the village of Petrushevo, Kherson Oblast, then in Russian Empire, Rait-Kovaleva graduated from the medical faculty of the Moscow University in 1924.

Rait-Kovaleva's translation of The Catcher in the Rye (Russian: Над пропастью во ржи, Over the Abyss in Rye) was first published in the Soviet Union in the November 1960 issue of the literary magazine Inostrannaya Literatura. The translation had only superficial adaptations for Soviet readers, such as cutlets (kotlety) instead of hamburgers. It was also noted, however, that the translation smoothed Caulfield's rougher language and excised obscenities. Rait-Kovaleva also translated from French and German, including such authors as Franz Kafka and Heinrich Böll.

Selected works Man from the Musée de l'Homme. The Story of Boris Vildé (1982, «Человек из музея человека. Повесть о Борисе Вильде») Moscow; Sovetsky Pisatel P. 336