Konstantin Paustovsky is one of Russia's most popular writers. His books are well known not only to Russian intellectuals but also to the wide reading public. His Severnaia povest' (Northern Tale), also known as Severnye rasskazy (Northern Stories, 1939), was first published in book form in Povesti i rasskazy (Tales and Stories, 1939) and was made into a motion picture in 1960. The movie was popular in both Russia and Europe--especially France, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania. Paustovsky's stories inspired Russian composers: Sergei Sergeevich Prokof'ev, for example, wrote music to the ballet U moria (At the Sea Shore), based on Paustovsky's story "Roza vetrov" (The Wind Rose). In 1963 the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater staged Viktor Trembitsky's ballet Kruzhevnitsa Nastia (Nastia the Lacemaker), based on Paustovsky's story of the same name. In spite of his popularity Paustovsky was an extremely private person. Even Paustovsky's friend and biographer Lev Abelevich Levitsky does...