Veniamin Kaverin was a long-lived and exceptionally productive writer, chiefly of stories, novels, and memoirs, but also of plays, children's tales, speeches, letters, and scholarly works. His career spanned nearly the entire Soviet period, from 1920 to 1989, during which time he passed through three distinct phases: from eccentric storyteller to honored novelist to a voice of conscience for Russian literature. His growth as a writer was enormous, and a review of his life is instructive not only for the light it throws on the Soviet period of Russian literature but also for the lessons it gives to anyone interested in the craft of creative writing.

Having chosen a nom de plume, Kaverin regretted that his true surname was always cited in encyclopedias and textbooks, feeling that he had been sentenced to a double name. Nevertheless, he was born Veniamin Aleksandrovich Zil'ber in Pskov, on 6 April 1902, into a boisterous, musical...