Odnoetazhnya Amerika (One-Storied America) First published in the U.S.S.R. 1936. Little Golden America. First published in England in 1944. Translated from the Russian by Charles Malamuth This is one of the most popular books ever published in the Soviet Union. It remains popular in Russia today. We Americans cannot figure out what makes it so popular. It is a good book, interesting and well written, but does not contain anything so outstanding as to make it the most popular book ever written. Yet almost every Russian seems to have read or to be familiar with "Little Golden America". It describes the adventures of the two authors, who arrived in New York City on the passenger ship Normandie. After one month in New York, they bought a car and started traveling around the United States. They went to Chicago and San Francisco and then swept back through the Southern States. When they arrived back in New York to return to Europe, they said that they had traveled ten thousand miles.
PART I: FROM A TWENTY-SEVENTH-STORY WINDOW 1. The Normandie 2. The First Evening in New York 3. What Can be Seen from a Hotel Window 4. Appetite Departs While Eating 5. We Seek an Angel Without Wings 6. Papa and Mamma 7. The Electric Chair 8. A New York Arena 9. We Purchase an Automobile and Depart PART II: THROUGH THE EASTERN STATES 10. On the Automobile Highway 11. The Small Town 12. A Big Little Town 13. Mr. Ripley’s Electric House 14. America Cannot be Caught Napping 15. Dearborn 16. Henry Ford 17. That Horrible Town, Chicago 18. The Best Musicians in the World PART III: TOWARD THE PACIFIC OCEAN 19. In Mark Twain’s Country 20. A Marine 21. Rogers and his Wife 22. Santa Fe 23. Meeting the Indians 24. A Day of Mishaps 25. The Desert 26. Grand Canyon 27. The Man in the Red Shirt 28. A Young Baptist 29. On the Crest of the Dam PART IV: THE GOLDEN STATE 30. Mrs. Adams Sets a Record 31. San Francisco 32. American Football 33. Russian Hill 34. Captain X 35. Four Standard Types 36. The God of Potboilers 37. Hollywood Serfs 38. Pray, Weigh Yourself, and Pay 39. God’s Country PART V: BACK TO THE ATLANTIC 40. On the Old Spanish Trail 41. A Day in Mexico 42. New Year’s Eve in San Antonio 43. We Enter the Southern States 44. Negroes 45. American Democracy 46. They and We 47. Farewell, America!
Biography
Ilya Ilf, Eugene Petrov
