Lev Lunt︠s︡ papers

The Lev Lunts Papers consist of correspondence, writings, and personal papers that document the short career of the Russian playwright. Most papers date from between 1922 and 1930, but the collection spans the years 1896-1931. Except where indicated, all the papers are in Russian.

The papers are divided into three series; Correspondence (Box 1), Writings (Box 2-3), and Family Papers (Box 4), plus on box of Restricted Fragile Papers.

Series I, Correspondence , consists primarily of letters to Lev Lunts, some letters and drafts of letters written by him, and the personal correspondence of his father, Natan Lunts. Lev's correspondence covers two periods in his life. The first is the year after his parents' departure from Russia in the summer of 1921. This period is documented in the letters of Natan Lunts to Lev and in Lev's letters to his family, which are filed with the Outgoing correspondence. The second period is from June 1923 to May 1924, from the time that Lev left Russia and joined his parents until his death. In the last year of his life, Lunts corresponded actively with people in Russia, as well as friends from St. Petersburg who were already abroad. The correspondence of Natan Lunts dates, for the most part, from after Lev's death.

Among the items in the Incoming correspondence are letters from prominent literary figures such as Kornei Chukovskii, Maksim Gorky, Il'ia Erenburg, and Evgenii Zamiatin, as well as a number of letters from Nina Berberova, who befriended Lunts when he lived at Dom Iskusstv. Berberova writes from Berlin, then Marienbad, and finally from Venice, where she and Vladislav KHodasevich stopped briefly before moving to Paris. For the most part, these are letters of friendship and concern, but they deal also with literary issues, such as plans for the production of the German translation of Vne zakona in Berlin, and the publishing of Lunts's articles and other works in Beseda.

Other incoming letters are from Lunts's colleagues and personal friends, the fellow members of the Serapion Brothers. Most extensive are the correspondences of Lidiia KHariton and Ida Kaplan, two of the Serapion maidens, and of Vladimir Pozner, who was one of the first and youngest members of the group, but who had by this time emigrated to Paris with his parents. The correspondents relate the news of the group and its members and comment on their latest work. Another subject is Lunts's work, the publication and production of his writings and plays in Russia, including the fate of Vne zakona, and an account (L. KHariton) of the reactions of the Serapions to the play Gorod pravdy. These, and the letters from other Serapions, provide an insight into the spirit of youthful friendship in the group, the members' relationships to each other, and the characters of these young writers, who were later to have very different fates, some adjusting and becoming mainstream Soviet writers, some repressed, and some exiled. Taken together, these letters tell the story of a year in the life of the Serapion Brothers--their literary successes and failures and the developments in their personal lives, all against the background of the extraordinary historical events of the time. Also of note are a letter from Elizaveta Polonskaia with an autograph poem and one from Aleksandr Slonimskii, written collaboratively with Samuil Marshak, containing a humorous poem composed by the two. Some of these letters have been published in various issues of Novyi ZHurnal and in the collection Zaveshchanie TSaria. Also part of the Incoming correspondence are letters from Dmitrii Umanskii, Lunts's German translator, which discuss his work on Vne zakona, and his attempts to get it published and produced in German.

Most of the outgoing letters are written by Lev Lunts to his parents in the years 1922-23. He discusses his university studies, his literary success, his material circumstances, and, in the later letters, his health and his plans to leave Russia. There are also two letters to his sister Evgeniia; a draft of a letter to Gorky, in which he expresses despair at being chronically ill in the prime of his life and talks about the Serapions and his play Gorod pravdy, and a draft of a letter to Nikolai Nikitin and his wife Zoia, which is a humorous response to their letters of September 25, 1923 (Box 1, folder 17).

The correspondence of Natan Lunts is filed under its own heading. After Lev's death, his father kept in touch with some of his friends, including Nina Berberova, Ida Kaplan, Lidiia KHariton, Elizaveta Polonskaia, and Mikhail Slonimskii. At first his father and his friends share the pain and shock of their loss; later they discuss the care of his possessions, his manuscripts, and the plans (never materialized) by the Serapions to put out a two volume edition of Lunts's works, including some articles and obituaries by his friends. Also included is Natan's correspondence with translators Dmitrii Umanskii (German) and F. O. Dempsey (pseudonym, John Silver, English) regarding the publication and production of Lev's plays and Natan's personal correspondence with friends and relatives, including R. Jakobson and M. IArblum. The series concludes with three folders of condolence letters, telegrams, and cards to the family.

Series II, Writings is divided into four sections: Drama, Screenplays, Articles, and Shorter Works. Translations comprise a significant portion of this series. Items of particular interest are holograph originals of the unpublished screenplay Zaveshchanie TSaria; the humorous short story "KHozhdeniia", a parody of the Serapions which Lunts sent to them to be read at the group's anniversary celebration and which incited much commentary in the correspondence; and the chronicle "Puteshestvie na bol'nichnoi koike." Other holograph originals include a first draft of the play Gorod pravdy and a draft of the article "O rodnykh brat'iakh."

The third and final series, Family Papers , contains documents such as a birth certificate, educational and identification records; documents related to Lev Lunts's death and burial; and newspaper clippings with obituaries and posthumous articles by his friends, including Konstantin Fedin, Nina Berberova, and Mikhail Slonimskii. Other items include photographs of Lev, Ida Kaplan, and others; Lunts's wallet and its contents; and some newspaper clippings. One clipping, a short resolution, signed collectively by the Serapion Brothers and published in Leningradskaia Pravda on January 27, 1924, became the cause of the group's break with Nikolai Nikitin (see also Lidiia KHariton's letter of March 2, 1924). Also found in the series are some personal papers of Natan Lunts.