Draft:Boris Ilyin (writer)

Boris Kiril Ilyin (Борис Кириллович Ильин; 28 August 1918 - 10 August 2014) was a Russian-American novelist and painter. Ilyin was born in Kazan, Russia during the Russian Revolution and immigrated to California in 1923.

After a career in the U.S. Army during World War II, he became a student of Wallace Stegner at Stanford University, where he was among the first recipients, along with Rory Barnes, of the Stegner Fellowship. While a student at Stanford, Ilyin wrote his first novel, "Green Boundary", based on his experiences with displaced persons during the postwar occupation of Germany ; the title is a reference to the border between the American occupation zone in Germany and the Soviet one.

He received the M.A. in 1949 and remained at Stanford, teaching English. During this time, he, Stegner and Richard Scowcroft wrote "The Writer's Art", a collection of short stories interleaved with literary analysis.

After a short time teaching at Pomona College, Ilyin began what he later described as "participation" in the Cold War. Some sources describe him as having a career "in the foreign service". However, his second novel, "False Flag", is told from the point of view of a CIA agent with the same initials as Ilyin, active during the same years. This has been considered tacit acknowledgment that Ilyin worked for the CIA. Additionally, a published bio mentions his work in "intelligence".

Ilyin retired from government service in 1969 to write and paint. His work, which focused on California landscapes was exhibited publicly beginning in 1970, including at his alma mater of Stanford.

Ilyin's second novel, "False Flag", was published in 2013 when he was 94. Its protagonist is a CIA agent concerned with a fictional Central African country during the 1960s; during this time, Ilyin is recorded as having been present at high-level State Department meetings concerning the Central African country of Congo.

Ilyin died August 10, 2014 and is buried in San Rafael, California.

Category:American writers of Russian descent