Sergeĭ Aleksandrovich Evreinow correspondence and papers

Series I, Correspondence , largely consists of N. N. Evreinov's letters to S. A. Evreinow. These provide a fascinating portrait of the dramatist's strong personality and a record of his artistic triumphs and financial difficulties. The two men apparently met in 1926 in New York, where Evreinov was attempting to enter into the American theater world and arrange translations of his "countless" books. Apart from a series of lectures in various cities, one concrete result was Evreinov's 1927 book The Theatre in Life. Some of the correspondence refers to productions of Evreinov's plays, particularly to that of Korabl' pravednykh at New York's Irving Place Art Theatre in 1926, and of The Chief Thing at Harvard in 1926 [?] and at Tufts College in 1949 (on this latter production see also Evreinow's correspondence with Marston Balch). A significant portion of the correspondence reflects a shared interest in clarifying the nature of their kinship; in later years, S. A. Evreinow even undertook a special genealogical study, the results of which he communicated to N. N. Evreinov. The correspondence between Evreinov and Evreinow shows that Sergei Aleksandrovich supported his distant relative quite generously in times of need, both in 1927, when Evreinov encountered some difficulties in New York, and in the post-war years. He became a close friend of the family, traveling to Paris to visit the Evreinovs. After Evreinov's death, Sergei Aleksandrovich continued to correspond with his widow. S. A. Evreinow's correspondence with Ivan Lapshin, Arthur Lourie and Vladimir Nikolaevich Skriabin testifies to his own interests in music, especially the works of Scriabin.

Series II, Other Papers , includes notices and programs of N. N. Evreinov's works in the United States, including the 1927 production of The Chief Thing. Here one also finds obituary and commemorative items, as well as two photographs of the dramatist, one with his family and one with his teachers Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. The series also encompasses some items bearing on S. A. Evreinow's own interests, such as clippings from the Russian-language press and materials concerning the demise of one Jacob Weinberg.