Andrei Timofeevich Bolotov stands out as the most prolific writer that Russia has ever produced, penning, by one estimate, the equivalent of some 350 volumes of written material--memoirs, diaries, letters, poems, plays, criticism, and translations, as well as a vast array of other works of literary, philosophical, religious, didactic, scientific, agricultural, and historical natures--over the course of his long and quietly astonishing career. During his lifetime Bolotov achieved a modest measure of recognition as a writer on agricultural and horticultural issues; he is best known today, however, for his massive Zhizn' i prikliucheniia Andreia Bolotova, opisannyia samim im dlia svoikh potomkov, 1738-1796 (The Life and Adventures of Andrei Bolotov, Written by Himself for His Descendants, 1738-1796 [1870-1873]). Because only a relatively small portion of what he wrote found its way into print--the memoirs, for instance, were not published until almost forty years after his death in 1833--Bolotov, despite his...