author
Michael Moukhanoff
A Russian émigré with an unusually adventurous life, he wrote with firsthand knowledge of upheaval, exile, and high-stakes worlds. His best-known books range from a loving biographical portrait of his first wife to a memoir-like guide drawn from his Monte Carlo roulette experience.
1 Audiobook
Nelka Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch
by Michael Moukhanoff
About the author
Born in St. Petersburg in 1897, Michael George "Max" Moukhanoff lived a life that stretched across imperial Russia, exile in Europe, and later years in the United States. Reliable records available online describe him not only as an author, but also as a diplomat, lecturer, professional gambler, and citrus grower.
His writing appears to have been shaped by that wide-ranging experience. He is known for Nelka, a biographical sketch about his wife, Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, and for Now You Can Win at Roulette, a book linked to his time in Monte Carlo. Together, those works suggest an author drawn both to intimate personal history and to the drama of chance and survival.
Moukhanoff died in 1990 in California. Though he is not a widely known literary figure today, the surviving record gives him the feel of a remarkable memoir subject in his own right: a man whose books grew out of a long, unpredictable, and deeply lived life.