«YOU ARE A FAMOUS CRITIC, I AM AN EMERGING NOVELIST» (ANNA MAR'S LETTERS TO A. A. IZMAILOV, 1910-1914)

The article introduces the letters of Anna Mar (1887-1917), a popular novelist and playwright of the early 20th century, to the famous critic A. A. Izmailov (1873-1921). At the time of their epistolary acquaintance, Izmailov was an accomplished journalist, a popular parodist, head of the literary criticism department of Birzhevye Vedomosti; Anna Mar was an employee of the Kharkov news-paper Yuzhny Krai, embarking on the professional writing career. Real fame came to her after the publication of the collection of short stories The Impossible (Moscow, 1912). The correspondence touches on the suicide of the poet V. V. Hoffman, with whom Anna Mar had a personal relationship. The article traces the history of the publication of her collected stories (Walking By, 1913, I Sinned to you Alone, 1914), and the vicissitudes of her publishing projects. From the very beginning, Anna Mar’s epistolary style was intimate; the reports of the daily events were supplemented by the description of indepth personal experiences, which was congenial to her literary style. The source of the publication of Anna Mar’s letters to Izmailov is the autographs from the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinskiy Dom), Russian Academy of Sciences. The location of Izmailov’s letters is unknown.

Anna Mar, A. A. Izmailov, criticism, ction, letters, review, Birzhevye Vedomosti