The Estate of R. K. Massie

Robert K. Massie, a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and biographer best known for chronicling the history of Russia. A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Massie studied American history at Yale and European history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He began researching the Romanov family while working as a journalist for The Saturday Evening Post, eventually leaving that job to pursue his research and historical writing full time.

His first book, Nicholas and Alexandra: The Classic Account of the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty, was published in 1967. Massie’s abiding interest in the Russian imperial house continued with the publication of Peter the Great: His Life and World, which was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, and his final book, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. He is also the author of the World War I naval histories Dreadnought and Castles of Steel.