A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Ch 7

http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/121 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 1. http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/121

http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/124 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 2. http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/124

http://proza.ru/2021/10/05/100 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 3. http://proza.ru/2021/10/05/100

http://proza.ru/2021/12/11/148 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 4. http://proza.ru/2021/12/11/148

http://proza.ru/2021/12/20/176 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 5. http://proza.ru/2021/12/20/176

http://proza.ru/2022/02/11/96 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 6. http://proza.ru/2022/02/11/96


Chapter 7. Books. Libraries

Heinrich Schliemann got acquainted with books early. The pastor, being a clergyman, kept church books with records of births, deaths, and marriages… Because of this, the pastor was in a sense the author of such church books. A certain literary talent could manifest itself in the recordings. The biographers of Heinrich Schliemann seem to feel some surprise when they quote an entry made by Pastor Ernest Schliemann in connection with the death of his first wife. The surprise is caused by the comparison of subjective judgments about his (the pastor's) attitude to his first wife, Louise, and the sincere grief of the father of the family, manifested in the recording.

For example, we will partially quote the words of the pastor, which he "attributed" ("plused") to the main record: "May the Lord reward the untimely deceased with pure and eternal bliss for all the love and tender care that she showed during her life to me and to our children" [Мейерович М. Л. С. 22] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 22].

Pastor Ernest Schliemann also published an obituary in the local newspaper in connection with the death of his first wife Louise:" (...) And now, filled with the deepest sorrow, I stand surrounded by my orphans, who are unable to comprehend a magnitude [a size] of their loss - due to their infancy, and I pray..." [Вандерберг. С. 423] [Vanderberg. P. 423]. You can pay attention to expressiveness and style. "I'm standing surrounded by orphans"!

Church books were a part of the pastor's life, and because of this, a part of the life of the pastor's family. Heinrich Schliemann told about his childhood, about communication with Minna Meincke: they: ''sit down in admiration before the church-registers" ... "the oldest records of births, marriages, and deaths inscribed in those registers having a particular charm for us" (Ilios. The city and country of the Trojans. By Dr. Henry Schliemann. NY. 1881. P. 4.)

Pastor Ernest Schliemann, who lives in Ankershagen, acquires a book about the excavations in Pompeii. Such a purchase, in the artistic interpretation of Heinrich Alexander Stoll, required saving on food for the whole family during a month [Штоль. С.35] [Stoll. P. 35]. Nevertheless, Ernest Schliemann decided to purchase books for the development of children, including Heinrich, for a lot of money.

The biographies of Nikolai Gogol mention the prices of his books published in Russia during his lifetime. One of the examples: 10 rubles, 50 kopecks (price of the book "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls", 473 pages, Moscow, 1842) [Труайя А. С. 366] [Troyat H. P. 366]. ("I would like the publication to be sold  [in book stores] cheaper: for 5 volumes, - five, six rubles, no more" (Nikolai Gogol — S. P. Shevyrev, November 7, < 1850>) [Гоголь Н. В. Письма. 1848—1852] [Gogol N. V. Letters. 1848—1852].

The most primitive and crude and simplified recalculation: multiply "those" rubles by 1 (1 gram of gold "in" an one ruble) and multiply by 2500 rubles (a very approximate cost of a gram of gold, expressed in modern rubles of the Russian Federation). Even if you then divide it by 2 or by 4 (you can always correct something, or argue about the numbers), then, in any case, the result will not be small. (It was time, still very far from cheap publications by Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin, who carried out a revolution in publishing and in book prices).

The happy (Ankershagenian) childhood  period for Heinrich  ended. Ahead were Neustrelitz, F;rstenberg, Hamburg, Amsterdam.

In some cases, Heinrich Schliemann had conditions for reading books, in some cases the conditions for a reading and for a books were not favorable. But now Heinrich Schliemann is gaining material independence. One of the subjects of interest of the merchant Heinrich Schliemann in St. Petersburg, in Russia, - are books, reading, literature.

"As before, he got up at five o'clock in the morning, worked diligently in the office, spent several hours every day in the warehouse: not trusting the clerks, he showed the goods to the customers himself. He every free minute was reading books, especially he was fond of reading Russian literature. He knew Pushkin and Lermontov almost by heart" [Мейерович М. Л. С. 50] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 50].

"...Schliemann, although he spent all his time on the stock exchange, it turns out that he managed to read Gogol" [Богданов И. А., 2008 а. С. 161] [Bogdanov I. A., 2008 a. P. 161].

In connection with the completion of commercial career, the St. Petersburg library was transferred to the son of Heinrich Schliemann, Sergei  [Богданов И. А., 2008 б. 150-151] [Bogdanov I. A., 2008 b, P. 150-151].

In Paris, Heinrich Schliemann, a successful landlord and rentier, has a significant library. Her fate worries him during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 (and there was something to worry about (except library): a several Parisian houses, the other Parisian property).

Disguised in the clothes of the postmaster, Schliemann, calling himself by the name of the postmaster and presenting documents of the postmaster to the patrols of the German army, at the risk of being mistaken for a spy,  sneaks into besieged Paris.

Both the houses and the library have been preserved. In a letter sent from Paris on March 14, 1871, he writes: "I was kissing my library as I would kiss a beloved child who has risen from death" [Мейерович М. Л. С. 89-90] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 89-90].

From the besieged Paris, Heinrich Schliemann writes to his wife Sofia in Athens: "After all, you are more fanatically interested in Troy than I am... Undoubtedly, it will give you the greatest pleasure to write a book in Greek about our excavations and publish it under your name to perpetuate Sophia Schliemann... "[Мейерович М. Л. С. 90] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 90].

The excavations did not just take place, they were accompanied by success, a brilliant success. It was possible to start spending capital in favour of the family. In Athens, Heinrich Schliemann is building a house, a kind of fairy-tale palace.

"...A marble staircase leads to the holy of holies: to the working rooms located on the second floor, where the library attracts special attention. Whole rows of shelves, from floor to ceiling, are filled here exclusively with Schliemann's own manuscripts. Above the library is the saying of Pythagoras: "Whoever does not study geometry, do not enter" [Мейерович М. Л. С. 142] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 142]. ["Let no one ignorant of geometry enter"]

"Schliemann preferred to receive his guests in the library. It was this room that was the most cozy in the house, it seemed it radiated a  warmth" [Вандерберг. С. 450] [Vanderberg. P. 450].

The life of Heinrich and Sofia Schliemann is filled with various events: excavations, travel. But one way or another in the biography (autobiography) the word "library" appears again.

Let us note the speech of Sofia with a report on the Trojan excavations on June 8, 1877 in the library hall of the Society of Antiquaries of London [Вандерберг. С. 387] [Vanderberg. P. 387]. It was the eighth year of their married life. The day ended with a banquet given by the Lord Mayor of London in honor of the Schliemanns.

Heinrich Schliemann, having already become rich, did not forget his teacher, candidate Carl Andres, under whose guidance Heinrich was able to write and send as a gift to his father Ernest Schliemann "a badly written Latin essay on the main events of the Trojan War"on Christmas Day 1832 (at the age of ten). In his Autobiography, Heinrich Schliemann notes: "Candidate Carl Andres is now librarian of the Grand-ducal library and keeper of Museum of Antiquities in Neu Strelitz" (Ilios. The city and country of the Trojans. By Dr. Henry Schliemann. NY. 1881. P. 6.).

Books also occupied an important place in the life of Nikolai Gogol, one of the most important world writers.

One of the distant relatives of the Gogol family, their patron (see, for example. [Манн Ю. В. С. 60] [Mann Yu. V. P. 60]), was a native of Malorossiya [Little Russia], a retired St. Petersburg nobleman, Dmitry Prokofievich Troshchinsky.  Troshchinsky was a man with a broad outlook, a patron of the arts, the owner of a theater rare for those times and those places and the owner of a very rich library, a collector. His service in the "tops" did not remain without consequences for the personality: almost all biographies of Nikolai Gogol describe the "entertainments" of Dmitry Troshchinsky; however, there is no violence in these descriptions, basically everything comes down to jokes involving human stupidity, greed and cowardice. Those a jokes could not but humiliate human dignity, which rightly shocks the modern reader. Such, apparently, were his" universities " of imperial administration (service), not the worst and most disgusting. Among the objects of his jokes was a priest who was not quite normal (perhaps he was  dismissed off due to abnormality), not the best candidate for "jokes"; anyway, Dmitry Troshchinsky's only daughter died suddenly and much earlier than him.

"In the house of Troshchinsky there were a collection of paintings, a rich library. Dmitry Prokofievich ordered newspapers and magazines from the capitals. Nikosha spent most of his time with books. Here, as a student, — he was reading the works by Petrarch, ... by Aristophanes, by Derzhavin, by Pushkin" [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

The Kybyntsi [Kibintsy] estate,  - wrote biographers (apparently, according to contemporaries or to a posterity of contemporaries of Dmitry Troshchinsky) - often perceived as "Ukrainian Athens" (See: [Stepanov N. L.] [Степанов Н. Л.] ).

Malorossiya [Little Russia], hinterland, province. You can say it's a "backyard", a remote settlement. But it is only at first glance.

Gogol  was introduced to  the Russian culture at an early age, he was brought up on the works of the best Russian writers. A close friend of his father and a neighbor on the estate was the writer Vasily Kapnist, the author of the widely known comedy "Complainer" [„Ябеда“ "Chicane" (1798)] at that time, which ridiculed the bribery and embezzlement of officials" [Stepanov N. L. "Gogol"] [Степанов Н. Л. «Гоголь»].

The time comes, Nikolai Gogol enters the Nezhinsky gymnasium.

"Perhaps the greatest wealth of the gymnasium was the library, the beginning of which was laid by the honorary trustee Count Alexander Kushelev-Bezborodko, the great-nephew of Prince Alexander Bezborodko, who essentially founded the Nezhinsky Lyceum. ( ... ) The count gave the gymnasium two and a half thousand volumes, and when Gogol graduated from the gymnasium, there were already seven thousand books in the library" [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

"...professors ... not only knew their subject perfectly well, but also gave students books to read from their personal libraries, received them at own home, where literary and scientific conversations were conducted, where they read (in the original) works of  classics (French and German), translated Schiller, German romantics, and even Voltaire himself" [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

Henri Troyat writes that in a group of friends, comrades, fellow students of Nikolai Gogol at the Nezhinsky gymnasium there were five future writers: Nestor Kukolnik, Yevhen Hrebinka, Konstantin Bazili, Nikolai Prokopovich, Vasily Lyubich-Romanovsky. "Eager to read, these young men could not be satisfied with the meager supplies of the lyceum library… Sometimes Gogol bought books with the money allocated for pocket expenses. ( ... ) Gradually, young people began to buy books and magazines pooling their means. Things were going well, and it became necessary to identify a librarian. They unanimously elected Nicholas. Gogol treated his duties with all scrupulousness... It was surprising to expect from a boy who was so dismissive of his own person, such a reverent attitude to books" [Труайя А. С. 33-34] [Troyat H. P. 33-34].

In a letter dated April 6, 1827, from city of Nezhin, to his mother, Nikolai Gogol, for example, mentions: "To buy [the book of] Schiller... I gave 40 rubles... "[Труайя А. С. 33] [Troyat H. P. 33].

Just as in the biographies of Heinrich Schliemann, the word "library" appears quite often in the biographies of Nikolai Gogol.

Nikolai Gogol visits Paris. What does it mean?

"To visit theaters, listen to the best singers in the world, look at new cities, hang out in art galleries, take a walk ( ... ) along the Champs-Elysees"? Sure. However: "Here ( ... )," he wrote to Prokopovich — "in every alley and alley there is a library with magazines" [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

The time has come to make a pilgrimage; Nikolai Gogol is heading to Jerusalem. On the way, he stopped in Istanbul (Constantinople). And what (who) is here? There is one of Nikolai Gogol's fellow students at the Nezhinsky Gymnasium.

But not only the joy was of meeting a fellow gymnasium student. "The Greek Bazili was drawn to his native lands, but here he remained a man brought up in Russia - next to books in Arabic on the shelves of his library there were Russian books; Derzhavin, Pushkin, he, Gogol.

This library, the conversation, the manuscript that Bazili gave the guest to read (it was his work on Syria and Palestine) — everything touched Gogol.

He listened to Konstantin with delight. In Bazili's stories, the East opened up to Gogol. From the semi-dark and cool rooms of the consular mansion, the sea was clearly visible, its dazzling blue brilliance, brightly shining - up to pain in eyes, - as well as the equally bright white land of the surrounding mountains, bordered at the foot by the greenery of gardens" [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

An amazing journey. Gogol - Istanbul - the mansion of the consul (fellow practitioner) - library - in the library: Gogol.

Nikolai Gogol, who was heading for the trip, asked his mother and sisters to pray for him. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem went well. Life went on. “Old age is terrible! God forbid to live to see her and turn into a parody of himself, a parody of a person. (…) Of course, there is old age of the other "style", and he saw it. On the way to Vasilyevka, he and Maksimovich stopped at Optina Pustyn: for a long time he had dreamed of visiting this monastery, but earlier he couldn't. Optina Pustyn was famous for her elders, skete [monastic settlement], clever monks, library ” [Золотусский И. П.] [Zolotussky I. P.].

However, no matter how you live, whatever you do, no matter in which libraries you is busy (or is not busy) with “mole work”, all the same you cannot please everyone. “What one can say about the arrogance of Chernyshevsky , who upsets Gogol with such a simple and“ murderous ”shout:“ You have not read the books you should have read! ” [Мережковский Дм. С. Гоголь. Творчество] [Merezhkovsky Dm. S. Gogol. Creativity].

“The steamer chef Mikhail Akimovich Smury has become a principled figure in Russian literature: without him there would be no writer Gorky. It was he who instilled in the little bartender not even love, but a passion for absorbing any books in any quantity. He made Peshkov read aloud for himself [for Smury] - this is how Alexei got acquainted with Taras Bulba and was captivated by this work  forever.” [Быков Д. Л.] [Bykov D. L.].

“Gorky writes about Smury in a note from 1897:“ He aroused my interest in reading books. Smury had a whole chest filled mainly with small books in leather bindings, and it was the strangest library in the world. ("Guards retired non-commissioned officer Mikhail Akimovich Smury") [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim].

“I believe that I began writing at the age of twelve and that the impetus for this was 'oversaturation with experience'. (…) I read - a lot, especially a lot - translations of foreign literature. I loved to read the Bible ... "(М. Горький « [Как я пишу]» (1930 год)). (Maxim Gorky" [How I Write] "(1930)).

“He began to read again indiscriminately.
(...) Rejecting nothing:
(...)
So what? His eyes were reading
But the thoughts were far away;
Dreams, desires, sorrows
Squeezed into the soul deeply.
He between the printed lines was
Reading with spiritual eyes
Other lines. In them he
Was completely deepened. " [Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, Chapter 8, XXXV.]

“But first - some everyday details of his stay in Nizhny [Nizhny Novgorod]. From October 1889 he got a job as a clerk for A.I. Lanin, the attorney at law,  for twenty rubles a month. Twenty rubles is good money. This is less than thirty rubles, which Peshkov, the “weigher”, was receiving on the railroad, but not three rubles, which he was earning in Semyonov's hellish bakery. Moreover, Lanin did not burden Peshkov with work, but allowed him to use his luxurious library at any time ” [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim].

“Gorky donates hundreds of books to the city library, at his request Chaliapin gave a concert in Nizhny, the cash receipts from which went to the construction of the People's House” [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

Maxim Gorky finally moves from Italy to Soviet Russia. The Mossovet hands over to him and his family a beautiful two-story mansion (architect Fyodor Schechtel) on quiet Malaya Nikitskaya [Street], which once belonged to the millionaire Ryabushinsky.

The interior decoration is also beautiful, especially the wide staircase leading to the second floor.

"I will portray in a true picture
A secluded office
Where is the pupil exemplary of fashion
Dressed, undressed and dressed again?
All goods for a plentiful whim,
From scrupulous London trades
And along the Baltic waves
were delivered to us in exchange of the forest and lard,
Everything, that is chosen in Paris by delicate taste,
All, that was invented for fun, luxury, fashionable bliss, -
Everything decorated the room of
A philosopher at the age of eighteen. " (Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin", Novel in verse)

Behind the lobby is a huge Gorky's library. But all the books did not fit in it: there are more than 10 thousand of them. There are bookcases with books in the inner lobby, along the stairs. Of the Russian writers, only Leo Tolstoy had more books in the [personal] library. But this is only what was left with Gorky up to the day of his death." “He loved books, collected them, treasured them, but he gave away many extremely rare books to those who liked books, to those who, in his opinion, needed them more. During his life he donated many books to various libraries (for example, to Nizhny Novgorod library he handed about 1000 books) ” [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

"It is impossible for a person," Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky recalls the words of Gorky , - "to refuse two things: bread and a book ” [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

“... Gorky is an admirer of a book, passionately in love with literature. Consequently, Andreev must "sting" him in this "place".

“L.N. [Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy] did not like to read and, being himself a book maker [a writer] - a creator of a miracle, he treated old books with distrust and carelessness.

“For you, a book is a fetish, as for a savage,” he told me. - This is because you did not wipe through your pants on the benches of the gymnasium, did not deal with the university science. And for me "Iliad", Pushkin and everything else is littered with the saliva of teachers, is prostituted by hemorrhoidal officials. "Woe from Wit" ["Горе от ума"] is boring, just like Evtushevsky's problem book. "The Captain's Daughter" [«Капитанская дочка»] is boring thing (for me) like a young lady from Tverskoy Boulevard. (...) ". The provocation is obvious here. For Gorky, Russian and world literature is an unshakable system of values. And Andreev, of course, does not believe what he says. In fact, he saw a “universal” significance in Russian literature, he was fond of Dostoevsky and was, as a writer, dependent on him” [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim].

“He mentioned, quoted, retold, evaluated hundreds of works of writers, sociologists, philosophers (especially in "Samghin"), his heroes, starting from the very first stories, are characterized not only by their actions, deeds, words, but also by the books they read and love, often repeat, quote, by what they read” [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

“The mind of a person who lived long before us, he left all the wealth of the soul accumulated by him for our edification. Therefore, let us take it this way: the books contain the souls of people who lived before our birth, as well as those [souls] who live in our days, and the book is, as it were, a worldwide conversation of people about their deeds as well as a record of human souls about life" (М. Горький. «Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина») (Maxim Gorky." The Life of Matthew Kozhemyakin ").

“Starlings and sparrows do not believe in God, that's why a songs are not given for them. The same is true for people: whoever does not believe in God cannot say anything ... " (М. Горький. «Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина») (Maxim Gorky." The Life of Matthew Kozhemyakin ").


A "Book wisdom" and an intuitive knowledge.

A  psychiatrist in Nizhny Novgorod ("with a smile of a cheerful devil"), "small, black, hunchbacked", "he asked for two hours how I live," wrote Gorky, "then, slapping me on the knee, by an unusual white hand, said:" You, my friend , first of all, you need to throw books and in general all the rubbish that you live with. By your build, you are a healthy person, and you are ashamed to dissolve yourself so much [to keep yourself in such form]. You need physical labor. How situation about women? Well, that not well either. Leave abstinence to others, and get yourself a woman who has inclination to a love game  - it will be useful. "

Judging by the biography, Aleksey Peshkov, after acquiring this advice, went on a long walking travel.

Maxim Gorky: "... The wisdom of life is always deeper and broader than the wisdom of people." But, apparently, in the memory (perhaps unconsciously) these words stuck.

“However, it has long been noticed: either to read or to live ...” [Быков Д. Л.] [Bykov D. L.]. (By whom, where and under what circumstances it was noticed?).