FANTASY STORIES OF "NAUTILUS" BOOKS OR WHERE DREAMS LEAD

Abstract

The “Nautilus” publishing house was founded in 1997, initially for the publication of the Ukrainian edition of “Scientific American” under the name “World of Science.” Each issue consisted of ten articles of immeasurable value from various fields of science and discoveries. The journal had a successful publishing run of seven years. A large circle of translators and scientific editors gathered at this publishing house and expanded their activities, motivated by the mission statement: “First – translate the most famous world textbooks into Ukrainian, then – elevate our national authors to this level.” The first medical textbook to be translated and published was “Langman’s Medical Embryology.” As a result of a lucky encounter with Dr. Paul Dzul, an otolaryngologist from Detroit, with support from the American-Ukrainian Medical Foundation (AUMF), “Nautilus” published the two-volume “Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary,” first English-Ukrainian, then Ukrainian-English edition. The goal of AUMF was also to translate well-known medical English textbooks into Ukrainian. It was and is essential to present Western medical standards to Ukrainian medical workers and to compile and develop Ukrainian medical terminology. Next came the translation of Frank Netter’s “Atlas of Human Anatomy” (Ukrainian-Latin), “Molecular Cell Biology” by Alberts, “Physics for Universities” by Young and Friedman, and the “Illustrated Medical-Psychological Dictionary” in 3 volumes. Additionally, “Nautilus” established the “Media Analytical Group (MAG)” for the purpose of translating websites and resources of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament) into English. The 4-volume edition of Taras Shevchenko’s “Kobzar” was an absolute gem of “Nautilus.” These and other exciting moments of publishing are described in this article.