This book is a joint autobiography of the novelist Sergei Iourienen and cultural scholar and thinker Mikhail Epstein. Their friendship began in 1967, as freshmen at the philological faculty of Moscow State University, and has continued for more than 40 years, now in the USA. It is not merely a dual and dialogical autobiography, but an encyclopedia of youth, the most mysterious, passionate, tormenting, egoistic, and metaphysical age. The encyclopedia includes about 100 entries in alphabetical order, such as Absolute, Age, Anti-Semitism, Books, Girls, Desire, Diary, Dorm, Friendship, Generation, Influences, Interlocutors, Jew, KGB, Literature, Love, Pilgrimage, Politics, Professors, Reading,
... More > Religion, Rules of Life, Self, Sex, Silence, Things, University, Woman, Writing... Focused on seven years, from 1967 through 1974, the book reveals the world of youthful fascinations and anguishes, creative endeavors, love sufferings, social fears, and professional and existential quest. The coauthors proceed from the depth of their memory and at the same time from the viewpoint of their subsequent life experience, thus combining various historical and psychological perspectives on youth. The book includes several appendices: aphoristic dialogues in the form of questionnaires, stories and meditations written in youth and about youth, and essays on the philosophy of age and ageing and the genre of encyc-lopedia/thesaurus. This edition is richly illustrated by the photos from the authors’ personal archives. < Less