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Lot 284
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A.K. Tolstoy Epic 15pp ALS - A "Confession" Describing His Writing Process, Notable Works, Love for Ukraine & Imperial Connections
A.K. Tolstoy Epic 15pp ALS - A "Confession" Describing His Writing Process, Notable Works, Love for Ukraine & Imperial Connections
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Description:

Aleksey Tolstoy
Menton, France, March 4, 1874
A.K. Tolstoy Epic 15pp ALS - A "Confession" Describing His Writing Process, Notable Works, Love for Ukraine & Imperial Connections
ALS
A 15pp autograph letter in French signed by Russian writer Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), as "Alexis Tolstoy" on the bottom of the last page. March 4, 1874. Written at the Villa du Parc Tranquille in Menton, in the French Riviera, where Tolstoy was probably recuperating from a host of persistent health problems. Neatly inscribed on both single and bifold sheets of paper, with the last page being blank. With scattered contemporaneous edits/corrections by Tolstoy throughout. Expected wear including gentle even toning and a few scattered marginal smears and smudges. Flattened paper folds and wrinkles, with isolated closed tears, some repaired. Unpaginated, but with a former collector's pencil page numbers. Else near fine. 8.5" x 10.5." Provenance: Ex-Christie's. Published in the "Works" (Moscow, 1964). Also accompanied by extensive background information including a full English translation; several photocopies of the letter translated into Russian; and an auction catalog description from L'Autographe S.A. (Geneva, Switzerland).

Russian writer Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (A.K. Tolstoy) came from a family of considerable literary talent, among whom included second cousin and novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), and maternal uncle and short story / fairy tale writer Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky (1787-1836). A.K. Tolstoy wrote this exhaustive 15pp letter to his Italian friend and fellow writer, Count Angelo de Gubernatis (1840-1913), a Noble Prize-nominated poet, linguist, professor, and journalist. De Gubernatis had asked Tolstoy for information about his life in advance of a public lecture to be given about the Russian writer. De Gubernatis presented the aforementioned lecture in Florence, Italy on March 28, 1874, and lengthy excerpts of this very letter were published under the title "Il conte Alessio Tolstoi" in the magazine founded by de Gubernatis in 1869, "Rivista Europea" (May 1874, vol. 2, fasc. 3.)

Tolstoy wrote in this letter to De Gubernatis: "In your letter to my wife, you asked for some biographical details about my literary career. She has written to you about it, but I, for my own part, intend to make you a confession as complete as possible, because it is the only way in which to prove how grateful I am for your interest and what a prize I consider it to be known by a man like you. Don't blame me if this desire makes me wordy…"

In the letter, Tolstoy sharply delineates between his "external" and "internal life." His outer life was a matter of historical record: particulars about his childhood, education, professional career, and military service, which Tolstoy dutifully summarizes. More importantly to us, though, Tolstoy also discusses his inner spirit or essence, "the history of his soul," which encompasses his creative agency, his private thoughts, and his deepest feelings. At the end of his "confession," Tolstoy triumphantly concludes, "Here it is, my good dear Monsieur De Gubernatis, my history of the outside and inside" ["Voici, mon bien cher Monsieur De Gubernatis, mon histoire au dehors et au dedans."]

A biographical summary of Tolstoy's life can be found elsewhere. In brief, Tolstoy's wealth and personal connections enabled him to go to university, travel, work in the Russian Imperial corps, and serve during the Crimean War. The best elements of this letter illuminate the facets of Tolstoy's inner life: his first forays into writing, and his writing process in general; his major literary works; his feeling of cultural identity, specifically for Little Russia, or present day Ukraine; and his personal connections to two tsars, Nicholas I and Alexander II.

Please see below for some copious translated excerpts of Tolstoy's letter:

On Writing

"My childhood was very happy and only leaves me with luminous memories. Being an only child, not having any playmates, and gifted with a very lively imagination, I became accustomed at an early age to the reverie that would soon transform itself into a decided penchant for poetry…" p. 3

"From the age of six years I began to scrawl on paper and make verses, so much was my imagination struck by several pieces by our better poets that I found in a large poorly printed and poorly bound [poetry] collection with a dirty red cover… I carried it everywhere with me, and I hid myself in the garden, or in the woods, to study for hours, lying under the trees. Soon I knew it by heart, I became intoxicated by the music of the diverse rhythms and I tried to assimilate the technique. As absurd as my first attempts couldn't help but be, I must say that in their relation to meter they were irreproachable. I continued also, and perfected myself as much as was in me, during the years, but I did not appear in the press until 1842, when I debuted not with my verse, but with several short stories in prose…" p. 6-7

"[Tolstoy's love of hunting] was not without influence on the color of my poetry. I believe that I owe it to the circumstance that all of my poetry is written in a major key, while my compatriots have for the most part sung in minor… Today I restrict myself to telling you that my love of our wild nature is reflected in my poetry perhaps almost as often as my sentiment for plastic beauty. As to the moral direction of my writing, I can characterize it on the one hand by a horror of the arbitrary, and on the other hand by a horror of false liberalism that seeks not to raise what is low, but lower what it high… I am among the number of two or three writers who uphold the flag of art for art, my conviction being that the mission of the poet is not to bring men gain, or an immediate profit, but to raise their moral level, inspiring their love of the beautiful…" p. 10-11

"To summarize my position in our literature, I must tell you with a certain pleasure that I am the bête noire of our social-democrats, and the favorite of the common people whose protectors they claim to be. What's more, a curious thing, that while our newspapers sully me with the name of a reactionary, the administrative authorities consider me a revolutionary..." p. 14-15

Some Famous Works

"Then I wrote a trilogy: 'Boris Godounoff,' in three separate dramas, whose first, 'The death of Ivan the Terrible' was often performed in St. Pétersbourg and in the provinces, where, however, it is currently banned by a circular issued by the Ministry of the Interior… The second drama of the trilogy, 'The Czar Fedor,' (translated in German and in Polish) has been banned from production since the time of its publication. This is everything that I have written in verse, or in prose, the best I've done, and which has been the most denigrated by the press… The third part of the trilogy bears the name of 'Czar Boris' and hasn't been admitted to the theatre…" p. 12-13

The historical trilogy which Tolstoy here describes consisted of "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1866), "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" (1868), and "Tsar Boris" (1870). Other major works that Tolstoy mentions in this letter to De Gubernatis include: "Prince Serebrenni" (1862), a novel set during the reign of Ivan the Terrible; and "Don Juan" (1862), a drama emphasizing Don Juan's Faustian quest for truth rather than his personal shortcomings.

On Cultural Identity

"I was born in St. Pétersbourg in the year 1817, but at the age of six weeks I was brought to Little Russia (modern-day Ukraine) by my mother and my maternal uncle, M. Alexis Péroffsky, later curator at the University of Kharkoff [modern day Kharkiv, Ukraine] and known in Russian literature under the pseudonym of Antoine Pogorelsky [Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky (1787-1836)]. It was he who raised me, and my first years were spent in these lands, which is why I look at Little Russia as my true homeland…" p. 2-3

"The nature of the country where I lived contributed a great deal [to Tolstoy's love of poetry]; the air and the view of our great forests, which I loved passionately, left deep impressions which influenced the character of my life and my life and that I keep up till this day…" p. 3

"From the age of 17 years, when I passed my final examination at the University of Moscow, I didn't stop traveling with my parents, as much in Russia as abroad, but returning often to the land where I spent my first years, and that I could never see without feeling great emotion…" p. 4

On Imperial Court Connections

"My education was always conducted at home. At the age of 8 or 9 years old I went with my parents to St. Petersburg, where I was presented to the Tsarevich ["Czarrarévitch"], today the Emperor of Russia, and admitted among the number of children forming his Society of Sundays. Since this day his benevolence for me has never failed me…" p. 3

"The Emperor Alexander II, after his coronation in Moscow, gave me the honor of naming me his aide-de-camp. However, as I was never prepared to be a soldier and because my intention had been to quit the service when the war ended, I soon submitted my scruples to H.M. who accepted my resignation with characteristic kindness…" p. 5

"Since my 20th year [Tolstoy's passion for hunting] became so violent and I delivered myself up to it with so much ardor that I sacrificed to it all the time that I could dispose of. I was during this time attached to the court of the emperor Nicolas and I led a very worldly life that wasn't without attraction for me, but that I would often escape to spend entire weeks in the forests, sometimes with a companion, but ordinarily alone…" p. 9

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Provenance: Ex-Christie's, 1 December 2021, lot 155. Published in the "Works" (Moscow, 1964), vol. 4, no. 274.
  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 10.5"
  • Medium: ALS

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