Gleb Struve  /  Correspondence 124

"N<ovoe> R<usskoe> Slovo" dated July 30 <...> has not yet reached me <...>. Therefore, I cannot say anything about Gulev's report on the next book of Novyi Zhurnal. But I know his position in relation to Shalamov...

Responding to your "editorial report," I forgot to say that I welcome what you said about the "strange" reaction of "Russian thought" to Shalamov's "confession." Everything that Shalamov published in Novyi Zhurnal seems to me very valuable...

I have heard complaints about you for writing in your abstract about the next book of Novyi Zhurnal about Shalamov. I didn’t like it, and I sympathize with you. Soviet repentances, of course, are a very sad thing, but they should always be taken on faith and should not be given too much importance...

I read “The Tale of the Bluebottle” in No. 52 of Grani with great interest. I saw this work last year as a manuscript in England. The condescending and dismissive review of it by Yu. K. Terapiano in Russkaia Mysl’ upset and disappointed me...

Have you seen in the literary supplement to the London “Times” from March 9th my letter regarding their review of L. K. Chukovskaia’s novella, which appeared in Novyi Zhurnal under the title "Sofiya Petrovna" and then in Paris under the title Opustelyi Dom?

Last year Y...

I have had a surge of urgent work and have had to delay “Dnevnik.” But for now, I am sending you two poems by I. Brodskii. Print them with the preamble I wrote, but without any mention of my name. But first, it might be better to check if these poems have appeared in Grani in the last two years...

With regard to Amalrik, yes, of course, wait for Zinaida Alekseevna’s return. But the thing is that it seems you did not understand me correctly: I did not speak about any letter of Lobodowski’s. I meant your publishing of the first part of my article...

I have also received some information about Akhmatova, but with the strictest order to not tell anyone for the time being. Unlike the author of the letter about Mandelshtam, A.A. is mortally afraid of any communications with émigrés and foreigners...

I assume that you are still without news about JGO, but I expected to hear from you after your talk with Martin Malia. The latter has not deigned to answer several of my letters, including the one in which I asked him whether he would have any insuperable...

By now you have doubtless received the photograph and the A<nna> A<khmatova> poems. I resisted taking these a bit, because when I asked [Oksman] if she wanted them published he insisted “she wants but doesn’t want to know.” I told him on...

I received your letter yesterday and tried several times to reach Martin by telephone without success – perhaps he’s out of town, though the Hist<ory> Dept. secretary didn’t know it if he is. I do apologize for not having written you after the...

Dear Gleb Petrovich,

I still do not have exact information so as to respond to your proposal of the poetry book (or a booklet): one printer got sick, and another (Bashkirtsev) does not have a telephone, and he lives far from the city, and I will only be able to visit him in another week <…>...

Dear Gleb Petrovich,

As promised, a week later, I am sending you the proofs, not only the galleys but the whole layout: all the same, I had to do it anyway. As you can see, it has amounted to 24 pages – exactly three-quarters of the printed sheet...

Thank you for the letter. As I’ve written before, it is already too late to add anything to Brodsky’s volume. The book is already published, and yesterday some sample copies were supposed to be sent to me, some of which I will later send out as per the orders I have received (you will also receive them then)...

Brodsky is an uneven poet. Some of his works aren’t strong, his language can often be sloppy and sometimes just incorrect, but he is nonetheless an interesting, meaningful, and promising poet (even a very promising one). I especially like the “Large Elegy” and “Isaac and Abraham...

<…> memoirs of E. M. Tager-Maslova about Mandelshtam. At first, I was going to include these into his collection of poems (and include her short story “Popadia”) with a pretty long introduction (memoiristic in nature), but our publishing house recently went through a certain (hopefully minor) financial setback...

Of course, Brodsky has many shortcomings but in my opinion he is much more significant than Evtushenko and Voznesensky, and is more interesting and better than the poets of Feniks and Sintaksis. One must keep in mind that he is also quite...

I’m rushing to respond and thank you for Brodsky’s poems and to ask you to give me permission to publish Sintaksis. You have given me a great joy!

Both conditions you have stipulated are truly easy to accomplish. I’m attaching to this letter a check for 25 dollars for the photocopies of Sintaksis and shipping...

And so, here is the last part of Sintaksis. Forgive me for some slowdowns with the mailing of this final portion.

I don’t know whether you agree with me that among the poems in it there are a lot of weak and simply bad ones. Nonetheless...

I have read the article in “Literaturnaia Gazeta.” I am surprised that it can actually produce an impression on anyone here, since it contains a ludicrous phrase suggesting that our publishing house “pursues the goal” of printing works “that due to reasons of ideological and artistic immaturity” (highlighted by me - G...

Finally the entire Sintaksis arrived and I am very grateful to you. Again I would like to express my deepest appreciation for that and the trouble you went through with retyping and mailing it. Thank you, thank you. <...>

Regarding your response to Sintaksis...

One of my friends and colleagues, who is in Moscow right now, asked me to send him some copies of Tertz (Terc) in Russian. Over there he became very interested in this author, and I have already sent him “Sud idët” and “Fantastičeskie povesti.” Now he is asking me again...

I have also received some information about Akhmatova, but with the strictest order to not tell anyone for the time being. Unlike the author of the letter about Mandelshtam, A.A. is mortally afraid of any communications with émigrés and foreigners...

So, I will be waiting for the manuscript [of Vasily Grossman’s Vse Techet]. I can offer it to the Chekhov Publishing House, I am on good terms with them. And they can print it regardless of whether it is published in Novyi Zhurnal (it does not constrain them)...

I have not read Chukovskaia’s "Novella," it is difficult for me to begin on prose. Lyda read it and said that it is phony.

The reaction of Russkaya Mysl to "Shalamov's Protest" simply shocked me. How could Shakhovskaya write such a thing? Taking it from the article of one defector (I almost know who), who certainly has no right to write about any informers. I would like Shakhovskaya to answer me in the newspaper...

Dear Gleb Petrovich,

I hasten to inform you that today I have received both the picture and the check. Yes, with this check, I think the money can be obtained without any delay. It is unlikely that any more money will be needed, we’ll try to get by...