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Almost 50 previously unknown letters to Ivan Bunin were included in the "Autographs do not burn" book, RIA Novosti reports. It was published by the American publishing house Academic Studies Press. According to the author of the collection, Vera Tsareva-Brauner, the letters to the famous writer were written by family friends Nikolai and Natalia Kuhlman. They were sent by the Bunins during their life in France. The messages have been released in English translation. They have not previously been presented to readers.
Vera Tsareva-Brauner, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, said that she accidentally discovered two books with Bunin's autographs in the university library. She had to conduct a real investigation, which led the scientist to the University of Leeds. There is the Russian archive, which has another name - Bunin. There were letters in it.
About 400 messages cover the period from 1923 to 1953. They provide the details of the long-term friendship and joint activities of the Bunins and Kulmanov. The families became close in Russia, their communication was not interrupted in Paris, where they ended up in exile. After receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, Bunin appointed Kulman as one of the managers of the Nobel Foundation for charitable purposes.
Vera Tsareva-Brauner noted that the letters were not edited, the messages had nothing to do with politics. Each letter has detailed comments that reveal many previously unknown facts about a wide variety of people, the author added.
The second book is now being prepared for printing. It contains messages from Natalia Kuhlman to Vera Bunina. They contain a lot of new information.
The author expressed the hope that someday the letters will be published in full in Russian.
Russkiy Mir
