Ellendea Proffer Teasley

Who is Ellendea Proffer Teasley?

Ellendea Proffer Teasley is an American author, publisher, and translator of Russian literature into English.

She received her Ph.d from Indiana University, taught at Wayne State University and University of Michigan, Dearborn. She is a well-known Bulgakov expert, translator and publisher. She is known for Mikhail Bulgakov: Life & Work; translations of Bulgakov's plays and prose; numerous articles and introductions, most prominently the Notes and Afterword to the Burgin-O'Connor translation of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.

She married Carl R. Proffer, and co-founded Ardis Publishers in 1971, a specializing in Russian literature, both in English and Russian. As a publisher, she was responsible for the collected works of Bulgakov in Russian, which then triggered a Soviet edition. Proffer Teasley edited a series of well-received photo-biographies, including those devoted to Nabokov, Tsvetaeva and Bulgakov.

Ellendea Proffer was on the first judges' panel for the Booker Russian Novel Prize, and in 1989 received a Macarthur Fellowship for her work with Ardis.

Carl Proffer's papers and the Ardis archives are held at University of Michigan. Ellendea Proffer Teasley donated a collection of manuscripts, typescripts, correspondences, books, photographs, and proofs, to the University of Michigan's Library.