Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940) - photo 1
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940) - photo 2
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940) - photo 3

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940)

Lot 26
01.12.2021 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 37 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 681142
Lot 26 | Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940)
Estimate value
£ 20 000 – 30 000
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940)
A biographical summary. 1927
Autograph letter signed ('M. Bulgakov') to Alisa Gukovna [Leventhal], n.p., 21 January 1927.

In Russian. In purple pencil, 4 pages, 212 x 135mm, on a bifolium.

'You have absolutely no aptitude for literature': Bulgakov reports early discouragement in his writing career, and supplies biographical information for a dictionary, warning '"everything else" printed about me is completely false'. In numbered points (evidently corresponding with a series of questions), Bulgakov reports his birth in Kiev and graduation, his first publication ('satirical feuilletons in newspapers') and the first reviews of his work: 'There were 2. / One of the writers said – You are very talented. / And immediately after that, one of the editors remarked: / You have absolutely no aptitude for literature, and advised me to write news items in a newspaper, until such a time when I could find some sort of a trade. Since then I have received other repeated responses and with a few exceptions they were all similar to the second one. Particularly memorable was one lady in 1922 expunging huge chunks from my feuilletons'. As regards his literary influences, Bulgakov reports that 'Among contemporary men of letters no one has had and no one now has' any influence on him. He goes on to supply a list of his major works, comprising the novels The White Guard (1923-24), The Fatal Eggs (1924-25), Heart of a Dog (1925-26), as well as the shorter works Notes on a cuff (1921), Adventures of Chichikov (1922), Diaboliad (1923-24) and the play The Days of the Turbins (1925-26) and Zoya's Apartment (1926). He declines to provide a broader bibliography: 'Extremely difficult to recollect, everything is scattered'. Finally, he warns his correspondent: 'You write "everything else is known to me". My earnest request is that you make use of only the information in this letter, for "everything else" printed about me is completely false'.

The information was intended for B.P. Kozmin's Writers of the Modern Era: A Bio-Bibliographical Dictionary of Russian Writers of the Twentieth Century (1928): the work was swiftly suppressed because it contained an article about Trotsky.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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17.11.2021 – 01.12.2021
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
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