Education
Born in the village of Petrushevo, Kherson Oblast, then in Russian Empire, Rait-Kovaleva graduated from the medical faculty of the Moscow University in 1924.
Born in the village of Petrushevo, Kherson Oblast, then in Russian Empire, Rait-Kovaleva graduated from the medical faculty of the Moscow University in 1924.
She initially worked in medical institutions, but at the same time began a literary activity in 1920 by translating Mayakovski"s Mystery-Bouffe into English. Rait-Kovaleva then started to teach English in the Military and Technology Academy in Leningrad. In 1959, Rait-Kovaleva authored a book about Robert Burns.
She also published memoirs about Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov and Boris Pasternak.
Translations.
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.
In 1938, Rait-Kovaleva became a member of the Union of Writers of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.
