Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia on 9 September 1828. In 1852 he published his first work, the autobiographical Childhood. He served in the army during the Crimean War and his Sevastopol Sketches (1855–6) are based on his experiences. His two most popular masterpieces are War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1875–8). He died in 20 November 1910.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have been nominated for the PEN-Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize three times and have won it twice. They live in Paris