Georgiĭ Adamovich papers

The Georgii Adamovich Papers are contained in one box. The papers contain the correspondence from and to Georgii Viktorovich Adamovich, one book by I.A. Bunin, and poems by G.V. Ivanov.

The Correspondence includes 57 outgoing letters written by Adamovich to one of his best friends, the well-known Russian poet, prose writer, and literary critic, Georgii Vladimirovich Ivanov and his wife Irina Vladimirovna Odoevtseva, who was also a poet and novelist. (Her real name was Iraida Gustavovna Heinecke.) The letters are arranged chronologically in folders 1-3. Many names are mentioned in this correspondence, such as Aldanov, Bunin, Gul', Remizov, Teffi, Terapiano. Gul' is not presented in a favorable light. In the letter of September 20, 1958, Adamovich writes to Odoevtseva: "... Pisem u menia nikto ne chitaet, i ia vse seichas zhe unichtozhaiu. Esli pomru, budto nikhto nikogda mne i ne pisal! ..." (No one reads my letters, because I destroy all of them immediately. If I die, it will look as if no one ever wrote to me). He scrupulously protected his private life, which probably explains the relative scarcity of extant correspondence.

The correspondence also includes 101 incoming letters of eminent Russian literary figures. They are arranged alphabetically by author and then chronologically in folders 4-15. The incoming and outgoing letters span the dates 1927-60. Prominent correspondents represented in the collection include M. Aldanov, I.A. Bunin, Z.N. Gippius, A. Remizov, A.S. Shteiger, N.A. Teffi, M. TSvetaeva, and B.K. Zaitsev.

In one of his letters to Adamovich, M. Aldanov, whose real name was Mark Aleksandrovich Landau, not only praises, but also criticizes his book L'autre patrie.

I.A. Bunin's letters describe his everyday life and travel plans; they mention a considerable number of names (Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Zaitsev, Ivanov), discuss his writings and that of others, and include some gossip. They are interwoven with his poems and show Adamovich's and Bunin's closeness and friendship, even while Bunin criticizes L'autre patrie. On the other hand Adamovich, in an undated autograph note signed G.A, states that Bunin "...zhalovalsia, chto ego nedostatochno tseniat, kak poeta..." (complained, that he was not enough appreciated as a poet). A selection of Bunin's letters was published in Novyi zhurnal (v. 110, March 1973), by professor A. Zveers.

Z.N. Gippius's letters, masterful in content and language, form a valuable part of her literary production, interlacing her intellectuality and deep knowledge of literature. Gippius's selected letters to Adamovich have been edited and published by Temira Pachmus under the title Intellect and Ideas in Action (1972).

Next come two calligraphic letters of Aleksei Remizov. Baron Anatolii Sergeevich Shteiger writes to Adamovich from a sanatorium in Leysin, Switzerland, full of hope that he will overcome tuberculosis. Nadezhda Alexandra Buchinskaia, born Lokhvitskaia, is the real name of N.A. Teffi. She is represented by one letter. There is also only one letter of Marina TSvetaeva, who turns to Adamovich for help while preparing a lecture.

The last letters are written by Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev. He sends Adamovich his new book Izbrannye rasskazy (Selected Stories) and asks him to write a review.

Miscellaneous Papers house a presentation copy of Bunin's Vospominaniia (Paris, 1950). Folder 17 contains four autograph poems by Georgii Ivanov.